Meeting Abstract

S6-2.1  Thursday, Jan. 5  PROTEOMICS AS A TOOL TO STUDY NEUROTOXICITY IN FISH MARTYNIUK, CJ*; CHOWN , B; DOPERALSKI, NJ; FESWICK , A; KROLL, KJ; SPADE, DS; BARBER, DS; DENSLOW, ND; University of New Brunswick; University of New Brunswick; University of Florida; University of New Brunswick; University of Florida; University of Florida; University of Florida; University of Florida cmartyn@unb.ca

There are a significant number of environmental pollutants that are neurotoxic to aquatic organisms. Many herbicides and pesticides, for example, are designed to be neuroactive and antagonize synaptic neurotransmission in the central nervous system (CNS). Proteomics approaches can offer new insight into the mechanisms underlying neurotoxicity in fish and bioinformatics approaches can be utilized to characterize cell signaling cascades that involve proteins that are disrupted. Dieldrin is an organochlorine pesticide that acts by antagonizing the gamma-amino butyric acid (A) receptor in the CNS. This pesticide has been shown to be associated with increased risk to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. Using LC MS/MS and the iTRAQ method, we quantified proteins in the hypothalamus of largemouth bass, an important ecological and economical species found throughout southern Florida, that are affected by dieldrin neurotoxicity. Altered proteins included enolase, apolipoprotein E, and microtubule-associated protein tau. These proteins are reported to be associated with neurodegeneration in the vertebrate CNS. The pesticide also physiologically increases GABA in the fish brain and affects genes involved in inflammation, DNA damage, and neurodegradation. These data provide possible mechanistic links between protein turnover and GABA dysfunction.