title: Combined effect of temperature and zinc on Caenorhabditis elegans wild type and daf-21 mutant strains.
abstract: Heavy metal pollution in aquatic ecosystems is a far reaching environmental problem. The possible influences of heavy metal exposure and the potential harm to organisms when combined with other environmental stressors such as temperature have been largely unexplored. An aquatic toxicity test of Caenorhabditis elegans was performed to estimate the 24h median lethal concentration (LC50) of different zinc concentrations at different temperatures (15°C, 20°C, 25°C, and 30°C). We also examined the time course thermotolerance on wild type (N2) and daf-21 null (JT6130) adults exposed to 6.1mM zinc at 37°C. Hsp90 protein expression level in response to the combined effect of temperature and zinc toxicity was also investigated by both Western blots and ELISA. Our results show that C. elegans wild type nematodes exhibit severe lethal toxicity after a 24h exposure to zinc at higher temperatures. In addition, the expression level of Hsp90 was highly inhibited in adult worms subjected to zinc stress. This toxicity assay at different temperatures provides insight into organism response to combined effects of temperature and zinc toxicity.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China. Electronic address: wangyb@neigae.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Yunbiao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Protein Engineering and Plant Genetic Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Anastasia N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Ezemaduka
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001833:Body Temperature Regulation; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018841:HSP90 Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018869:Heat-Shock Response; D006358:Hot Temperature; D009154:Mutation; D015032:Zinc / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; C510188:DAF-21 protein, C elegans; D018841:HSP90 Heat-Shock Proteins; D015032:Zinc
keywords: ELISA; Heat shock protein 90; LC(50); Toxicology; Zn