A molecular biomarker system for assessing the health of gastropods (Ilyanassa obsoleta) exposed to natural and anthropogenic stressors.

We developed a Molecular Biomarker System (MBS) to assess the physiological status of mud snails (Ilyanassa obsoleta) challenged by exposure to high temperature, cadmium, atrazine, endosulfan and the water-accommodating fraction of bunker fuel #2. The MBS is used to assay specific cellular parameters of the gastropod cell that are indicative of a non-stressed or stressed condition. The MBS distinguished among responses to each stressor and to non-stressed control conditions. For example, the biomarkers metallothionein and cytochrome P450 2E1 homologue distinguished between metal and non-metal stresses. MBS data from this study corroborate toxicological studies of organismal responses to endosulfan, atrazine, fuel and cadmium stresses. The MBS technology aids in the accurate diagnosis of the snail's health condition because the physiological significance of the changes of each biomarker is well known. This technology is particularly relevant for environmental monitoring because gastropods are used as key indicator species in many estuarine, marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. Finally, the Molecular Biomarker System technology is relatively inexpensive, easy to implement, precise and can be quickly adapted to an automated, high-throughput system for large sample analysis.