Influence of chemical dose and exposure duration on protein synthesis in green sea turtle primary cells

Stephanie Chaousis; Frederic D L Leusch; Amanda Nouwens; Steven D Melvin; Jason P van de Merwe

doi:10.1016/j.jprot.2023.104942

Influence of chemical dose and exposure duration on protein synthesis in green sea turtle primary cells

J Proteomics. 2023 Aug 15:285:104942. doi: 10.1016/j.jprot.2023.104942. Epub 2023 Jun 5.

Authors

Stephanie Chaousis¹, Frederic D L Leusch¹, Amanda Nouwens², Steven D Melvin¹, Jason P van de Merwe³

Affiliations

¹ Griffith School of Science and Environment and the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith Univeristy, Building 51, Gold Coast Campus, QLD 4222, Australia.
² School of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Queensland, Building 76, QLD 4067, Australia.
³ Griffith School of Science and Environment and the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith Univeristy, Building 51, Gold Coast Campus, QLD 4222, Australia. Electronic address: j.vandemerwe@griffith.edu.au.

PMID: 37285907
DOI: 10.1016/j.jprot.2023.104942

Abstract

Understanding the impacts of chemical exposure in marine wildlife is challenging, due to practical and ethical constraints that preclude traditional toxicology research on these animals. This study addressed some of these limitations by presenting an ethical and high throughput cell-based approach to elucidate molecular-level effects of contaminants on sea turtles. The experimental design addressed basic questions of cell-based toxicology, including chemical dose and exposure time. Primary green turtle skin cells were exposed to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) 153 and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) for 24 and 48 h, at three sub-lethal, environmentally relevant concentrations (1, 10 and 100 μg/L). Sequential window acquisition of all theoretical mass spectra (SWATH-MS) identified over 1000 differentially abundant proteins within the 1% false discovery rate (FDR) threshold. The 24 h exposure resulted in a greater number of differentially abundant proteins, compared to 48 h exposure, for both contaminants. However, there were no statistically significant dose-response relationships for the number of differentially synthesised proteins, nor differences in the proportion of increased vs decreased proteins between or within exposure times. Known in vivo markers of contaminant exposure, superoxide dismutase and glutathione S-transferase, were differentially abundant following exposure to PCB153 and PFNA. SIGNIFICANCE: Cell-based (in vitro) proteomics provides an ethical and high throughput approach to understanding the impacts of chemical contamination on sea turtles. Through investigating effects of chemical dose and exposure duration on unique protein abundance in vitro, this study provides an optimised framework for conducting cell-based studies in wildlife proteomics, and highlights that proteins detected in vitro could act as biomarkers of chemical exposure and effect in vivo.

Keywords: Chelonia mydas; In vitro bioassay; PCB; PFNA; Proteomics; Time-dependent chemical exposure.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Animals, Wild
Polychlorinated Biphenyls* / analysis
Polychlorinated Biphenyls* / toxicity
Skin / chemistry
Turtles* / metabolism
Water Pollutants, Chemical*

Substances

Water Pollutants, Chemical
Polychlorinated Biphenyls