title: Stress response to cadmium and manganese in Paracentrotus lividus developing embryos is mediated by nitric oxide.
abstract: Increasing concentrations of contaminants, often resulting from anthropogenic activities, have been reported to occur in the marine environment and affect marine organisms. Among these, the metal ions cadmium and manganese have been shown to induce developmental delay and abnormalities, mainly reflecting skeleton elongation perturbation, in the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus, an established model for toxicological studies. Here, we provide evidence that the physiological messenger nitric oxide (NO), formed by l-arginine oxidation by NO synthase (NOS), mediates the stress response induced by cadmium and manganese in sea urchins. When NO levels were lowered by inhibiting NOS, the proportion of abnormal plutei increased. Quantitative expression of a panel of 19 genes involved in stress response, skeletogenesis, detoxification and multidrug efflux processes was followed at different developmental stages and under different conditions: metals alone, metals in the presence of NOS inhibitor, NO donor and NOS inhibitor alone. These data allowed the identification of different classes of genes whose metal-induced transcriptional expression was directly or indirectly mediated by NO. These results open new perspectives on the role of NO as a sensor of different stress agents in sea urchin developing embryos.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Biology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Oriana
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Migliaccio
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Biology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Immacolata
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Castellano
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Biology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121 Naples, Italy. Electronic address: anna.palumbo@szn.it.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Palumbo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002104:Cadmium / Q000633:toxicity*; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000187:drug effects; D008345:Manganese / Q000633:toxicity*; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism; D047328:Paracentrotus / Q000187:drug effects*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000187:drug effects*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D002104:Cadmium; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D008345:Manganese
keywords: Cadmium; Development; Manganese; Nitric oxide; Paracentrotus lividus; Stress