Full text
| |
| Author(s): |
Eliezer Stefanello
Total Authors: 1
|
| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Conjunto das Químicas (IQ e FCF) (CQ/DBDCQ) |
| Defense date: | 2015-10-13 |
| Examining board members: |
Pio Colepicolo Neto;
Marcia Aparecida Silva Graminha;
Carlos Takeshi Hotta;
Claudio Martin Pereira de Pereira;
Glaucia Mendes Souza
|
| Advisor: | Pio Colepicolo Neto |
| Abstract | |
The production and emission of pollutant are often derived from human activities, such as utilizing natural resources, developing infrastructure, agriculture and industry among others. Pollutant is defined as substances or energy introduced into the environment by man, directly or indirectly that may result in adverse effects on life. Pollutants can be divided into various classes including organic, nutrients, oils, radioactive isotopes, heavy metals, pathogenic, sediments, garbage among others. Disposal of sewage on water bodies is an old habit of how we deal with our wastes. Consequently, great part of the aquatic environment becomes polluted in various extents. Among the organic pollutants, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) represents a class of molecules consisting from two or more fused benzene rings and its by-products. Members of this class of compounds have been identified as exhibiting toxic and hazardous properties. Their toxicity is also due to its hydrophobic property that induces conformational changes on membranes, increasing their permeability. Consequently, the photosynthetic capacity of exposed organisms can be harmed, leading to serious imbalances on their electron chain transport and uncoupling oxidative phosphorylation. Anthracene (ANT) is a PAH formed by three fused benezenic rings and is one of the 16 prioritary PAH according to American and European regulatory agencies. ANT is classified as highly toxic for aquatic organisms causing long term effects on environment. Besides, ANT can be easily photooxidated and its products can be even more toxic, specially quinones, that can interfere on respiration and photosynthesis, leading to problems on algae development and ecosystem collapse caused by low biomass, oxygen deficiency and inhibition of detoxification processes. The amount of information about the effects on metabolism of the photosynthetic organisms is limited. Therefore our main goal was to use the model organism Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in order to gain insights on the toxic effects caused by ANT through GC-MS metabolomics approach. A metabolic response to ANT exposure, lipid accumulates in C. reinhardtii. Similarly to fatty acids, another marked physiological response was amino acids accumulation. With the exception of valine, all amino acids found in our GC-MS analysis showed a marked relative accumulation in cultures exposed to ANT. Another important finding was the high level of glutathione, possibly caused by ROS production. Carboxylic acids were also found in our analysis and among them a highly impacted pathway found was glyoxylate cycle. Toghether with the increase accumulation of glyoxylate, many TCA cycle intermediates, like succinate and malate were found. Furthermore, malate accumulation is dependent of glyoxylate and acetate, present in culture media. The product of this gene catalyse the reaction between glyoxylate and acetyl-CoA forming malate as a final product. Taken all together, our findings suggest that to compensate the photosynthesis inhibition, heterotrophic acetate metabolism was activated producing acetyl-CoA an important energy source, and glyoxylate cycle plays a central role during stress caused by ANT. Furthermore, incorporation of carbon through glyoxylate cycle can enable synthesis of more complex molecules like amino acids, lipids and carbohydrates. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 10/14893-9 - Study of metabolic effects of anthracene on microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii |
| Grantee: | Eliezer Stefanello |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |