Assessment of within-group variation in CYP1A mRNA inducibility in environmentally exposed and chemically treated Atlantic tomcod.

CYP1A gene expression has been implicated in the processing of environmental procarcinogens and levels of variation in CYP1A mRNA expression are high in both environmentally exposed and chemically treated Atlantic tomcod. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of physical and biological parameters such as temperature, sex, and reproductive state on within-group variation in CYP1A mRNA induction. Levels of variation in CYP1A mRNA expression were directly correlated with mean levels of gene induction. Our results indicate that sex and reproductive state, but not temperature, had significant effects on CYP1A mRNA inducibility in tomcod; however, these parameters did not account for all interindividual variation in CYP1A inducibility. Other intrinsic biological factors, such as genetic polymorphisms in molecular pathways leading to CYP1A induction, may contribute to the high levels of interindividual variation in CYP1A inducibility in Atlantic tomcod.