Effect of arsenite on the proteome of earthworms Eisenia fetida

Highlights

Ÿ 24 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified by proteomic method.

Ÿ DEPs function as metabolism, signal transduction, stress-related and transport etc.

Ÿ Proteomics of As exposure help to explore its toxicity mechanism in earthworm.

Abstract

Arsenic (As) is broadly distributed due to natural and anthropogenic sources, and it is toxic to organisms. This study aimed to investigate the proteomic response in earthworm exposed to As³⁺ . Earthworms were exposed to As³⁺ in soil at 5–80 mg kg^–1, and samples were collected after 60 days exposure. Two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) was used to separate the proteins in earthworm homogenate, then differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified using MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS analysis. After 2-DE, 36 DEPs were found and 24 of them were successfully identified. 79.2% of DEPs were upregulated compared to the control group. The maximum fold change reached 53.8 in spot 3108 in the 80 mg kg^–1 As group. Two proteins were not found in the control group but found in the As treated groups. Proteins were grouped into metabolism, signal transduction, stress-related, transport, regulation, and predicted/hypothetical protein categories based on their function. The protein–protein interaction between the DEPs indicated that serum albumin (ALB) is very important, related to 6 other proteins. Proteins were then verified by western blot, the results were in agreement with the proteomic analyses. The identification of induced or repressed proteins because of As³⁺ in earthworms is helpful to explore the underlying mechanisms of soil arsenic ecotoxicity.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Earthworm / As³⁺ / Two dimensional electrophoresis / MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS / Proteomics

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Shanghai Agriculture Applied Technology Development Program of China (2021 No. 2-2), the Natural Science Projects of Henan University of Technology, China (No. 2019BS037), the Open Fund Project of State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Monitoring for Heavy Metal Pollutants (SKLMHM202106) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41471203).

Electronic supplementary material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s42832-021-0126-y and is accessible for authorized users.

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