The polychaete worm, Perinereis nuntia, is a good test organism for evaluation of sediment pollution

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the biological effects of marine sediment layer in dumping sites using the sediment-dwelling organism at transcription level. The marine sediments were collected from 6 pumping sites, 1 non-dumping site (YBR-001) and 5 dumping sites (YB-009, YB-049, YB-053, YB-098, YB-101) in the Yellow Sea 5 pumping sites, 1 non-dumping site (DBR-010) and 4 dumping sites (DB-026, DB-079, DB-089, DB-091) in the East Sea-B sites 5 pumping , 1 non-dumping site (DJR-009) and 4 dumping sites(DJ-016, DJ-056, DJ-059, DJ-064) in the East Sea-J sites. The pore waters were prepared from each sediment sample. The polychaetes were incubated in the pore waters and the expression level of 9 target genes were compared with those of a group exposed to control seawater and the a group exposed to 200 ppb of CdCl2 for 24 hours, respectively. The target genes are 2 metal binding genes (ferritin and hemerythrin-like metalloprotein) and 7 oxidative stress related genes (catalase, glutathione peroxidase 1, glutathione peroxidase 3, glutathione S-transferase-α, heat shock protein 70, heat shock protein 90α and Mn superoxide dismutase). Considering the range of gene expression level changes, the degree of sediment pollution could be ranked as YB-053 > 101 > 098 ≥ 049 > YBR-001 in the Yellow Sea DB-026 > 092 > 079 > 089 in the East Sea-B sites DJ-056 ≥ 059 > 016 > 064 in the East Sea-J sites. and 5 dumping sites (YB-009, YB-049, YB-053, YB-098, YB-101) in the Yellow Sea 5 pumping sites, 1 non-dumping site (DBR-010) and 4 dumping sites (DB-026, DB-079, DB-089, DB-091) in the East Sea-B sites 5 pumping , 1 non-dumping site (DJR-009) and 4 dumping sites(DJ-016, DJ-056, DJ-059, DJ-064) in the East Sea-J sites. The pore waters were prepared from each sediment sample. The polychaetes were incubated in the pore waters and the expression level of 9 target genes were compared with those of a group exposed to control seawater and the a group exposed to 200 ppb of CdCl2 for 24 hours, respectively. The target genes are 2 metal binding genes (ferritin and hemerythrin-like metalloprotein) and 7 oxidative stress related genes (catalase, glutathione peroxidase 1, glutathione peroxidase 3, glutathione S-transferase-α, heat shock protein 70, heat shock protein 90α and Mn superoxide dismutase). Considering the range of gene expression level changes, the degree of sediment pollution could be ranked as YB-053 > 101 > 098 ≥ 049 > YBR-001 in the Yellow Sea DB-026 > 092 > 079 > 089 in the East Sea-B sites DJ-056 ≥ 059 > 016 > 064 in the East Sea-J sites.