Research

Toxicogenomic analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans reveals novel genes and pathways involved in the resistance to cadmium toxicity

Yuxia Cui¹ , Sandra J McBride¹ , Windy A Boyd² , Scott Alper^3,4 and Jonathan H Freedman^1,2

¹Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA

²Laboratory of Molecular Toxicology, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA

³Laboratory of Environmental Lung Disease, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA

⁴Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27707, USA

author email corresponding author email

Genome Biology 2007, 8:R122doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-6-r122

Published:	25 June 2007

Subject areas: Genome studies, Model organisms, Molecular biology

Abstract

Background

Exposure to cadmium is associated with a variety of human diseases. At low concentrations, cadmium activates the transcription of stress-responsive genes, which can prevent or repair the adverse effects caused by this metal.

Results

Using Caenorhabditis elegans, 290 genes were identified that are differentially expressed (>1.5-fold) following a 4 or 24 hour exposure to cadmium. Several of these genes are known to be involved in metal detoxification, including mtl-1, mtl-2, cdr-1 and ttm-1, confirming the efficacy of the study. The majority, however, were not previously associated with metal-responsiveness and are novel. Gene Ontology analysis mapped these genes to cellular/ion trafficking, metabolic enzymes and proteolysis categories. RNA interference-mediated inhibition of 50 cadmium-responsive genes resulted in an increased sensitivity to cadmium toxicity, demonstrating that these genes are involved in the resistance to cadmium toxicity. Several functional protein interacting networks were identified by interactome analysis. Within one network, the signaling protein KEL-8 was identified. Kel-8 protects C. elegans from cadmium toxicity in a mek-1 (MAPKK)-dependent manner.

Conclusion

Because many C. elegans genes and signal transduction pathways are evolutionarily conserved, these results may contribute to the understanding of the functional roles of various genes in cadmium toxicity in higher organisms.