title: Effects of Microcystin-LR Exposure on Spermiogenesis in Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.
abstract: Little is known about the effect on spermiogenesis induced by microcystin-leucine arginine (MC-LR), even though such data are very important to better elucidate reproductive health. In the current work, with the aid of nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) as an animal model, we investigated the defects on spermiogenesis induced by MC-LR. Our results showed that MC-LR exposure induced sperm morphology abnormality and caused severe defects of sperm activation, trans-activation, sperm behavior and competition. Additionally, the expression levels of spe-15 were significantly decreased in C. elegans exposed to MC-LR lower than 16.0 μg/L, while the expression levels of spe-10 and fer-1 could be significantly lowered in C. elegans even exposed to 1.0 μg/L of MC-LR. Therefore, the present study reveals that MC-LR can induce adverse effects on spermiogenesis, and those defects of sperm functions may be induced by the decreases of spe-10, spe-15 and fer-1 gene expressions in C. elegans.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China. yhli@seu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yunhui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China. zhangminhui1990@163.com.
authors.forename: Minhui
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA. pan.chen@einstein.yu.edu.
authors.forename: Pan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China. ranliu@seu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China. lianggeyu@163.com.
authors.forename: Geyu
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China. lhyin@seu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Lihong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China. yppu@seu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yuepu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D008387:Marine Toxins; D052998:Microcystins / Q000633:toxicity*; D013081:Sperm Motility / Q000187:drug effects; D013091:Spermatogenesis / Q000187:drug effects*; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D008387:Marine Toxins; D052998:Microcystins; C057862:cyanoginosin LR
keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans; microcystin-LR; reproductive toxicity; spermiogenesis