Neutral lipids are induced in the apple snail Pomacea canaliculata by cypermethrin pesticide

LAVARIAS, SABRIA MARIA LUISA; LAGRUTTA, LUCÍA; PETERSON, GRACIELA; RODRIGUES CAPÍTULO, ALBERTO; VES LOSADA, ANA

Cordoba

Congreso; LII Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Bioquímica (SAIB); 2016

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular

Lipids are involved in important cellular processes, they are essential for energy metabolism and their fate in organisms is regulated by environmental conditions. Lipid homeostasis could be altered in aquatic organisms exposed to stressors caused by anthropogenic activities. Agricultural practices require the use of pesticides that also affect non-target organisms. The aim of this study was to determine whether the pesticide cypermethrin (CYP) alters lipid homeostasis. For this purpose, the freshwater snail Pomacea canaliculata was chosen as a bioassay model. Adult snails were exposed to sublethal concentrations of CYP and lipids from digestive gland (DG) were studied. Neutral lipids (NL) were stained with BODIPY 493/503 and nuclei with DAPI. Lipids were also characterized and quantified. In DG, NL were organized and stored as lipid droplets (LD) located mainly in cytosol. Besides, in nuclei there was a small LD population. Snail exposure to CYP presented cellular phenotype modification in DG due to an increase in TAG content and number and size of cLD. In conclusion, lipid metabolism in DG of P. canaliculata was altered by CYP at molecular and cellular levels. This is the first description of nuclear LD in mollusks. Histological analysis of neutral lipids could be proposed as a tool in environmental risk assessment since it is a relatively rapid and sensitive method.