Effects of glyphosate and methidathion on the expression of the Dhb, Vtg, Arnt, CYP4 and CYP314 in Daphnia magna.

In this study, the expression of five stress responsive genes was quantified and analyzed using a semi-quantitative RT-PCR to study the changes in their expression in Daphnia magna after exposure to known pesticides, glyphosate and methidathion. Hemoglobin (Dhb), which was used to show the effect of the oxygen level in the aquatic system, was significantly expressed in D. magna after exposure to glyphosate and methidathion. Additionally, aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (Arnt), a gene related to the metabolism of aryl hydrocarbons, had lower expression levels in D. magna than within the control. CYP4, which was used among cytochrome P450s (CYPs) to show the effects on the fatty acid and steroids metabolisms, was down-regulated in D. magna exposed to glyphosate. However, methidathion affected the expression of CYP314, which was used to show effects of ecdysis, not CYP4 in D. magna. Therefore, glyphosate and methidathion probably caused physiological effects with different patterns in D. magna, especially metabolisms related to CYPs. On the other hand, only vitellogenin (Vtg), which was responsive to the estrogenic potency, did not show any differences in D. magna after exposure to glyphosate or methidathion. Crown Copyright 2009. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.