Relationships between parasites and plasma proteins in male white sucker (Catostomus commersonii) from the Athabaska River

SIMMONS D.; MARCOGLIESE D. ; SHERRY J.; BRAICOVICH P. E.

Orlando

Congreso; 7th Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC); 2016

Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Shotgun proteomics can be used to assess the health of animals, to determine protein biomarkers that are specific to environmental exposures, and also to characterize unique mechanisms of action of contaminants. As part of a larger wild fish health assessment for the Athabasca River under the Joint Oil Sands Monitoring Program, we successfully developed and applied shotgun proteomics to generate protein profiles from plasma of mature male white sucker taken from three sites along the main stem of the Athabasca River in 2011. The study sites were located within the oil sand deposit including a site downstream of Fort McMurray but above the oil sands operations, and two sites downstream of the oil sands extraction facilities. On average, 376 ± 96 proteins were identified in plasma from each location. Gene names corresponding to those identified proteins were analyzed using interactive pathway software (Ingenuity Systems, Inc.) to determine their core functions and to compare the datasets by location, year, and sex. There were 478 proteins identified in plasma from fish across all sampling locations that were related to immunological functions. The following parasites were enumerated in the same fish samples: Diplostomum spp. (eye fluke), Ichthyocotylurus sp. (fluke), Phyllodistomum sp. (bladder fluke), Dactylogyrus sp. (gill flukes),and Polyopisthocotylea gen. sp. (flatworm). Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was performed on the parasite counts for each species and the count of proteins related to various immunological functions. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on the relative expression (total intensity counts) of each protein related to immune functioning for all individuals. Both of the multivariate approaches revealed strong differences (based upon protein expression, function, and parasite counts) among the three sampling locations.