Caenorhabditis elegans as a tool for environmental risk assessment: emerging and promising applications for a "nobelized worm"
Caenorhabditis elegans has been an invaluable model organism in research fields such as developmental biology and neurobiology. Neurotoxicity is one of the subfields greatly profiting from the C. elegans model within biomedical context, while the corresponding potential of the organism applied to en...
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| Published in | Critical reviews in toxicology Vol. 49; no. 5; pp. 411 - 429 |
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| Main Authors | , , , , , |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
England
Taylor & Francis
28.05.2019
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| Subjects | |
| Online Access | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Caenorhabditis elegans has been an invaluable model organism in research fields such as developmental biology and neurobiology. Neurotoxicity is one of the subfields greatly profiting from the C. elegans model within biomedical context, while the corresponding potential of the organism applied to environmental studies is relevant but has been largely underexplored. Within the biomedical scope, the implication of metals and organic chemicals with pesticide activity (hereinafter designated as pesticides) in the etiology of several neurodegenerative diseases has been extensively investigated using this nematode as a primary model organism. Additionally, as a well-known experimental model bearing high sensitivity to different contaminants and representing important functional levels in soil and aquatic ecosystems, C. elegans has high potential to be extensively integrated within Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) routines. In spite of the recognition of some regulatory agencies, this actual step has yet to be made. The purpose of this review is to discuss the major advantages supporting the inclusion of C. elegans in lower tiers of ERA. Special emphasis was given to its sensitivity to metals and pesticides, which is similar to that of other model organisms commonly used in ERA (e.g. Daphnia magna and Eisenia sp.), and to the large array of endpoints that can be tested with the species, both concerning the aquatic and the soil compartments. The inclusion of C. elegans testing may hence represent a relevant advance in ERA, providing ecologically relevant insights toward improvement of the regulatory capacity for establishing appropriate environmental protection benchmarks. |
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| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 ObjectType-Review-3 content type line 23 Fernando J.M. Gonçalves is presently Associate Professor with Habilitation at the Department of Biology (University of Aveiro, Portugal). Since 1996, he has established his own team within the Ecotoxicology and Freshwater Ecology research line and produced more than 250 scientific papers. His research interests lie in the frontier between Ecology and Toxicology, including the ecological aspects of man-induced change. As a professor, he has always devoted attention to issues related to Education for Sustainability, an interest to which he has contributed as author (co-author) of chapters and editor of books on this topic. For more details, see: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9326-187X Joana Luísa Pereira is a researcher at the Department of Biology and the Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) University of Aveiro since her PhD in Biology, awarded in 2008. Her main research lines are within the fields of ecotoxicology and environmental risk assessment, with strong links to limnology (including under regulatory frameworks such as the EU-Water Framework Directive), extreme environments, invasive species and aquatic nuisance management and education for sustainability. She has been investing in the development of new approaches and testing platforms towards the improvement of prospective and retrospective environmental risk assessment routines, always aiming for the increase of environmental realism and/or better prediction capabilities. Pesticides, metal elements and designer chemicals have been the major contaminants focused within this prospective context. She published so far more than 60 SCI papers, collecting more than 800 citations. Mário Pacheco received the degree on Biology (1988) from the University of Oporto, the Ph.D. (2000) and Aggregation/Habilitation (2016) degrees from the University of Aveiro, Portugal. He is currently an Assistant Professor with Habilitation in the same university. Since 2000, he is an integrated researcher in the Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies. He is mainly interested in aquatic toxicology: toxicity mechanisms of the main classes of contaminants (e.g. metals and organic hydrocarbons) and biotoxins in aquatic organisms; molecular toxicology and risk assessment; oxidative stress, biotransformation, genotoxicity, neurotoxicity, endocrine disruption. Marine aquaculture is also an area of interest, both in terms of research and teaching. He is co-author of more than 140 referred papers with more than 3000 citations (h index = 36). Patrícia Pereira is an Assistant Researcher at the Biology Department of Aveiro University and Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, working mainly in Aquatic Toxicology, particularly on the neurotoxicology of metals (mostly mercury and manganese) and organic contaminants in aquatic organisms. She has a PhD in Biology and 7 years of post-doctoral research sponsored by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. During this period, P. Pereira had developed research trainee abroad Portugal with renowned researchers in the neurotoxicology field, namely at Columbia University and Albert Einstein Institute, both in New York (USA). In 2017, P. Pereira had worked under the supervision of Michael Aschner at the Albert Einstein Institute in a research that aimed to investigate the neurotoxicity of pesticides in Caenorhabditis elegans. P. Pereira had published 60 papers in international journals with referees and had been cited around 700 times, resulting in an h-index of 16 (Web of Science). Michael Aschner serves as the Harold and Muriel Block Chair in Molecular Pharmacology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He served on numerous toxicology panels (Institute of Medicine, US Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Disease Control, FDA), and was a member of the Neurotoxicology and Alcohol study section (NIH). He currently serves on the SOT Council, and will soon assume the presidency of ATS. He has authored (co-authored) >600 peer reviewed manuscripts and 100 book chapters. Studies in his lab are designed to (1) shed novel mechanistic insight into metal-induced neurodegeneration; (2) identify targets for genetic or pharmacologic modulation of neurodegenerative disorders; (3) increase knowledge of the pathway involved in oxidative stress; (4) develop improved research models for human disease using knowledge of environmental sciences. C. elegans has been routinely used as a model at Dr. Aschner’s lab. Libânia Queirós is a PhD student at the Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Portugal. She did a Bachelor’s in Biology (2010-2014) and a Master’s in Toxicology and Ecotoxicology (2015-2017) at the same institution. Currently, she has been doing an internship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University, United States of America, in the context of the Fulbright program. Her research has been focused on the toxic effects of pesticides to aquatic and soil organisms, considering both single and mixture exposures to these environmental contaminants widely used in the agricultural practices to increase food production. The applicability of mixture toxicity models as a tool to design environmental friendlier formulations of pesticides has been her general research line. The regulation that controls the use of pesticides is also one of her main interests. The understanding and improvement of the Environmental Risk Assessment schemes that are used to assess the risk that these products can pose to the environmental and human health is imperative and gave rise to the writing of this paper. Notes on contributors |
| ISSN: | 1040-8444 1547-6898 1547-6898 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/10408444.2019.1626801 |