Genomics and Pharmacogenomics

The organic pollutants such as Benzopyrene (BaP), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), tributyltin (TBT), and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) are persistent in the environment and capable of endocrine disruption within the reproductive system, the central nervous system, or the immune system. Arsenic contamination is also a serious risk to human health and affects millions of people across the world. The ciliate protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila has long been used a good unicellular eukaryotic model for toxicological studies. In this study, this organism was exposed to BaP, DDT, TBT, TCDD, and Arsenic for 24 hrs, respectively and then RNA-Seq of each toxicant exposure was performed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). The functions of these DEGs were categorized using Gene Ontology enrichment analysis and the results suggested that the responses of T. thermophila were similar to those of multicellular organisms. For each toxicant, the involved gene-interaction network was construct and the model of each toxicant effect on T. thermophila was inferred. In addition, based on analysis of the networks, key enzymes that are potentially responsive to the toxicant metabolism were also identified. Functional validation of these key enzymes is ongoing.