High-Throughput Transcriptomics of Water Extracts Detects Reductions in Biological Activity with Water Treatment Processes

• Published in: Environmental science & technology Vol. 58; no. 4; pp. 2027 - 2037
• Main Authors: Rogers, Jesse D., Leusch, Frederic D.L., Chambers, Bryant, Daniels, Kevin D., Everett, Logan J., Judson, Richard, Maruya, Keith, Mehinto, Alvine C., Neale, Peta A., Paul-Friedman, Katie, Thomas, Russell, Snyder, Shane A., Harrill, Joshua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 30.01.2024; American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Subjects: Bioassays; Biological activity; Biological Assay; Breast carcinoma; Cell proliferation; Chemical pollution; Contaminants; Cost analysis; Drinking water; Ecological risk assessment; Engineering; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental Sciences & Ecology; Gene expression; Gene Expression Profiling; Humans; Industrial pollution; Occurrence, Fate, and Transport of Aquatic and Terrestrial Contaminants; Quality assessment; Reclaimed water; Surface water; Transcriptomics; Water monitoring; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis; Water Purification; Water Quality; Water quality management; Water supply; Water treatment; Xenoestrogens; differentially expressed genes; recycled water; MCF7; water cycle; water quality; high throughput transcriptomics
• ISSN: 0013-936X; 1520-5851; 1520-5851
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c07525

The presence of numerous chemical contaminants from industrial, agricultural, and pharmaceutical sources in water supplies poses a potential risk to human and ecological health. Current chemical analyses suffer from limitations, including chemical coverage and high cost, and broad-coverage in vitro assays such as transcriptomics may further improve water quality monitoring by assessing a large range of possible effects. Here, we used high-throughput transcriptomics to assess the activity induced by field-derived water extracts in MCF7 breast carcinoma cells. Wastewater and surface water extracts induced the largest changes in expression among cell proliferation-related genes and neurological, estrogenic, and antibiotic pathways, whereas drinking and reclaimed water extracts that underwent advanced treatment showed substantially reduced bioactivity on both gene and pathway levels. Importantly, reclaimed water extracts induced fewer changes in gene expression than laboratory blanks, which reinforces previous conclusions based on targeted assays and improves confidence in bioassay-based monitoring of water quality.