Multitissue Molecular, Genomic, and Developmental Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Resident Gulf Killifish (Fundulus grandis)

摘要

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster resultedrnin crude oil contamination along the Gulf coast in sensitivernestuaries. Toxicity from exposure to crude oil can affectrnpopulations of fish that live or breed in oiled habitats as seenrnfollowing the Exxon Valdez oil spill. In an ongoing study of therneffects of Deepwater Horizon crude oil on fish, Gulf killifishrn(Fundulus grandis) were collected from an oiled site (GrandernTerre, LA) and two reference locations (coastal MS and AL)rnand monitored for measures of exposure to crude oil. Killifishrncollected from Grande Terre had divergent gene expression inrnthe liver and gill tissue coincident with the arrival ofrncontaminating oil and up-regulation of cytochrome P4501Arn(CYP1A) protein in gill, liver, intestine, and head kidney forrnover one year following peak landfall of oil (August 2011)rncompared to fish collected from reference sites. Furthermore, laboratory exposures of Gulf killifish embryos to field-collectedrnsediments from Grande Terre and Barataria Bay, LA, also resulted in increased CYP1A and developmental abnormalities whenrnexposed to sediments collected from oiled sites compared to exposure to sediments collected from a reference site. These datarnare predictive of population-level impacts in fish exposed to sediments from oiled locations along the Gulf of Mexico coast.