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Metabolic signatures associated with environmental pollution by metals in Doñana National Park using P. clarkii as bioindicator

  • Combined effects of Environmental Stressors in the Aquatic Environment
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Abstract

Bioindicators can reflect the effects of pollutants on their metabolism, being widely used to assess environmental stress. In this sense, the crab Procambarus clarkii has been previously proposed to monitor the contamination in Doñana National Park (southwest Spain) using conventional biomarkers. In this work, a metabolomic approach based on direct infusion mass spectrometry, which allows an easy and quick study of a large number of metabolites in a single run, was used for pollution assessment of this area, considering the biological response of this organism to contamination. In addition, metal accumulation in crab tissues was determined. Thus, the integrated analysis of metabolomic and metallomic data enabled the study of metabolic response of the organism against pollution. Several metabolites were discovered as potential biomarkers of pollution, such as decreased levels of carnosine, alanine, niacinamide, acetoacetate, pantothenic acid, ascorbate, glucose-6-phosphate, arginine, glucose, lactate, phospholipids, and tryglicerides, as well as elevated levels of acetyl carnitine, phosphocholine, choline, and uric acid. In this way, metal-induced toxicity could be related to metabolic impairments, principally oxidative stress, metabolic dysfunction, and dyslipidemia.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the projects CTM2012-38720-C03-01 from the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad and P008-FQM-3554 and P009-FQM-4659 from the Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa (Junta de Andalucía). Raúl González Domínguez thanks the Ministerio de Educación for a predoctoral scholarship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Material Science, Faculty of Experimental Sciences, University of Huelva, Campus de El Carmen, 21007, Huelva, Spain

    Amanda Gago-Tinoco, Raúl González-Domínguez, Tamara García-Barrera & José-Luis Gómez-Ariza

  2. International Agrofood Campus of International Excellence, CEIA3, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain

    Amanda Gago-Tinoco, Raúl González-Domínguez, Tamara García-Barrera & José-Luis Gómez-Ariza

  3. Research Center of Health and Environment (CYSMA), University of Huelva, Campus de El Carmen, 21007, Huelva, Spain

    Amanda Gago-Tinoco, Raúl González-Domínguez, Tamara García-Barrera & José-Luis Gómez-Ariza

  4. Department of Ecology and Coastal Management, CSIC, Institute for Marine Sciences of Andalusia (ICMAN), Cadiz, Spain

    Julián Blasco-Moreno

  5. CIMA, Faculty of Marine and Environmental Sciences, University of Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-135, Faro, Portugal

    M. J. Bebianno

Authors
  1. Amanda Gago-Tinoco
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  2. Raúl González-Domínguez
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  3. Tamara García-Barrera
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  4. Julián Blasco-Moreno
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  5. M. J. Bebianno
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  6. José-Luis Gómez-Ariza
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Tamara García-Barrera or José-Luis Gómez-Ariza.

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Responsible editor: Markus Hecker

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Gago-Tinoco, A., González-Domínguez, R., García-Barrera, T. et al. Metabolic signatures associated with environmental pollution by metals in Doñana National Park using P. clarkii as bioindicator. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 13315–13323 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2741-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2741-y

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