Meeting Abstract
P3.61 Wednesday, Jan. 6 Temperature-Induced Stress Responses in the Blackworm (Lumbriculus variegatus) ADAMSKI, Alison V*; VILCHECK, Jeremy J; SURMACZ, Cynthia A; HRANITZ, John M; Bloomsburg University; Bloomsburg University; Bloomsburg University; Bloomsburg University csurmacz@bloomu.edu
The aquatic worm Lumbriculus variegatus (blackworm) is an ideal candidate for toxicity testing and is being used increasingly to assess ecological risk. Blackworms are sensitive to sublethal doses of various toxins and display readily observable biological responses such as pulse rate and tactile responses. To better understand the relationship between environmental stress and biological responses in the blackworm, we seek to investigate whether or not a hormetic stress protein response predicts changes in physiological and behavioral responses by blackworms exposed to water pollutants. In this initial study, our objectives were to determine: 1) if blackworm HSP70 can be detected with commercially available antibody; 2) conditions that induce heat stress in blackworms (heat shock); and 3) an experimental design to detect changes in HSP70 concentrations in response to heat stress. Commercial anti-HSP70 detected a single 70 kD stress protein on Western blots after 10% SDS-PAGE. Two experiments described the temperature responses of blackworms. Based on tactile responses over a range of temperatures, blackworms acclimated to room temperature displayed bimodal critical thermal maxima (37.5 oC and 40.3oC). Worms exposed for three hours to temperatures ranging from 22oC to 39.5oC showed higher HPS70 concentrations at 34.5 oC (p < 0 .001) compared to controls in ELISAs. These results show the potential for hormetic stress responses in L. variegatus and to further dissect relationships between physiological and behavioral responses and cellular stress proteins. Improved understanding of these relationships will assist aquatic biologists using blackworms as a bioindicator to more effectively predict sublethal population effects of pollutants in nature and to assess the health of aquatic ecosystems.
