title: Hypoxia-modulated gene expression profiling in sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus nudus) immune cells.
abstract: Hypoxia is an issue that affects ocean coastal waters worldwide. It has severe consequences for marine organisms, including death and rapid adaptive changes in metabolic organization. Although some aquatic animals are routinely exposed and resistant to severe environmental hypoxia, others such as sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus nudus) have a limited capacity to withstand this stress. In this study, hypoxia induced a significant increase in the number of red spherule cells among coelomocytes, which function as immune cells. This suggests that sea urchin immune cells could be used as a biological indicator of hypoxic stress. In the current study, we used cDNA microarrays to investigate the differential expression patterns of hypoxia-regulated genes to better understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the response of immune cells to hypoxia. Surprisingly, the predominant major effect of hypoxia was the widespread suppression of gene expression. In particular, the expression of RNA helicase and GATA-4/5/6 was decreased significantly in response to hypoxia, even in field conditions, suggesting that they could be utilized as sensitive bioindicators of hypoxic stress in the sea urchin.
authors.affiliation: South Sea Environment Research Department, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Geoje 656-830, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Suk
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.affiliation: South Sea Environment Research Department, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Geoje 656-830, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jinik
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.affiliation: South Sea Environment Research Department, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Geoje 656-830, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Mirye
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: South Sea Environment Research Department, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Geoje 656-830, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: So Yun
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Accident Prevention and Assessment Division, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-343, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Tae Kwon
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Ryu
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Engineering, SungKyunKwan University, Suwon 440-746, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sukchan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: South Sea Environment Research Department, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Geoje 656-830, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: tklee@kiost.ac.
authors.forename: Taek-Kyun
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D016923:Cell Death; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000378:metabolism; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D009055:Mouth / Q000166:cytology; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012313:RNA / Q000378:metabolism; D047269:Strongylocentrotus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D012313:RNA
keywords: Coelomocytes; GATA-4/5/6; Hypoxia; RNA helicase; Strongylocentrotus nudus