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Transcriptional changes in African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) exposed to 17α-ethynylestradiol during early development

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Abstract

Although the past two decades have witnessed a significant increase in the number of studies investigating effects of estrogenic chemicals on amphibians, to date little is known about specific molecular interactions of estrogens with the hypothalamus–pituitary–gonadal–hepatic axis in developing amphibians. Here, tissue-specific functional sets of genes, derived previously from studies of fishes exposed to endocrine active chemicals, were evaluated in Xenopus laevis exposed to 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) throughout their early development. Specifically, transcriptional responses of X. laevis exposed to 0.09, 0.84, or 8.81 µg EE2/L were characterized during sexual differentiation [31 day post hatch (dph)] and after completion of metamorphosis during the juvenile stage (89 dph). While at 31 dph there were no consistent effects of EE2 on abundances of transcripts,at 89 dph X. laevis exhibited significant alterations in expression of genes involved in steroid signaling and metabolism, synthesis of cholesterol, and vitellogenesis. Specifically, expression of androgen receptor, farnesyl diphosphate synthase, estrogen receptor α, and vitellogenin A2 was significantly greater (>2-fold) than in controls while expression of farnesoid x-activated receptors α and β was significantly less (>2-fold reduction) than in controls. These results support the hypothesis that sets of genes derived from studies in teleost fish can be extrapolated for use in amphibians during the juvenile stage but not in sexually undifferentiated individuals. Furthermore, changes in abundances of transcripts of the here utilized sets of genes in animals sampled post sexual differentiation were in accordance with developmental effects and alterations of gonadal histology reported in a parallel study. This set of genes might be useful for predicting potential adverse outcomes at later life-stages.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the support by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery Grants), Grants from Western Economic Diversification Canada (Project # 6578 and 6807), and an instrumentation Grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to J. Giesy and M. Hecker. J. Giesy and M. Hecker were supported by the Canada Research Chair program. Furthermore, John Giesy was supported by Distinguished visiting Professorship in the Department of Biology and Chemistry and State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong, the 2012 “High Level Foreign Experts” (#GDW20123200120) program, funded by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, the P.R. China to Nanjing University and the Einstein Professor Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The authors would like to thank J. Doering, S. Beitel, B. Tendler, and T. Tse for their assistance.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest in context with the presented work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    John P. Giesy

  2. Department of Zoology, and Center for Integrative Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    John P. Giesy

  3. Department of Biology & Chemistry and State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR, China

    John P. Giesy

  4. School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, China

    John P. Giesy

  5. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China

    John P. Giesy

  6. School of the Environment and Sustainability, Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, 44 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5B3, Canada

    John P. Giesy & Markus Hecker

  7. Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, 44 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5B3, Canada

    Amber R. Tompsett, Eric Higley, Sara Pryce & Steve Wiseman

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  1. Amber R. Tompsett
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  2. Eric Higley
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Correspondence to Markus Hecker.

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Tompsett, A.R., Higley, E., Pryce, S. et al. Transcriptional changes in African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) exposed to 17α-ethynylestradiol during early development. Ecotoxicology 24, 321–329 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-014-1380-x

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