The triazine herbicide atrazine is one of the most extensively used pesticides in the agricultural and residential areas of the U.S. and is routinely detected in many surface and ground waters that neighbor these areas. Typically regarded as a safe and selective pre- and post-emergence herbicide, atrazine reportedly interacts synergistically with many organophosphate (OP) insecticides to increase the toxicity of OPs to a variety of non-target organisms. We hypothesize that atrazine may induce certain cytochrome P450 monooxygenases, therefore, enhancing the oxidative activation process and in vivo toxicity of OPs. However, many other genes may be induced or suppressed upon atrazine exposure. This current toxicogenomic analysis of atrazine-treated Chironomus tentans was conducted to provide insightful information on the molecular mechanisms conferring the synergistic effects of atrazine on OPs. In this paper, we report: 1) comparisons of gene expression profiles of atrazine-treated and –untreated C. tentans using restriction fragment differential display-PCR, 2) cloning and sequencing of novel up- and down-regulated genes in atrazine-treated C. tentans, and 3) analyses of both time- and dose-dependent responses of the up- and down-regulated genes using Northern blot analysis.
Species 1: Diptera Chironomidae Chironomus tentans (aquatic midge)
Keywords: atrazine, toxicogenomics
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