Assessment of coastal sediment pollution using polychaete Perinereis nuntia: application of molecular biomarkers and DNA array chip

Abstract

The molecular biomarkers were evaluated in polychaete Perinereis nuntia to use as an indicator for sediment assessment. First, two differentspecies of polychaete were exposed to sediment collected from Lake Shihwa under lab condition. In our study, the integration of severalenvironmental evidences (Pollution load index, enrichment factor, Igeo) and benthic pollution indices (diversity, evenness, and opportunisticspecies) represent that this area is heavily polluted by anthropogenic pollutant, especially copper. The result from the sediment exposure testdemonstrates that P. nuntia incubated in aquaculture farm has great potency to be used as bioindicator species showing sensitivities in mortalityand measurable changes in accumulated metal concentrations and metal binding protein compared to inherent species Cirratulus cirratus.A number of stress- and cell defense-related genes (antioxidant related genes, cytochrome P450 genes, metallothionein) that are potentially usefulfor sediment monitoring at the molecular level were obtained by pyrosequencing method. Furthermore, potency and susceptibility as earlywarning indices were evaluated under various pollutants exposure comparing with accumulated pollutants. In sediment exposure test, however,there was an obvious increase in biomarker genes with slightly elevated concentrations of Cu and Cd in polychaete body, compared to initiallevn our study, the integration of severalenvironmental evidences (Pollution load index, enrichment factor, Igeo) and benthic pollution indices (diversity, evenness, and opportunisticspecies) represent that this area is heavily polluted by anthropogenic pollutant, especially copper. The result from the sediment exposure testdemonstrates that P. nuntia incubated in aquaculture farm has great potency to be used as bioindicator species showing sensitivities in mortalityand measurable changes in accumulated metal concentrations and metal binding