scholarly journals Combined Effects of Diatom-Derived Oxylipins on the Sea Urchin Paracentrotus lividus

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Esposito ◽  
Nadia Ruocco ◽  
Luisa Albarano ◽  
Adrianna Ianora ◽  
Loredana Manfra ◽  
...  

Oxylipins are diatom-derived secondary metabolites, deriving from the oxidation of polyunsatured fatty acids that are released from cell membranes after cell damage or senescence of these single-celled algae. Previous results revealed harmful toxic effects of polyunsaturated aldehydes (PUAs) and hydroxyacids (HEPEs) on sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus embryonic development by testing individual compounds and mixtures of the same chemical group. Here, we investigated the combined effects of these compounds on sea urchin development at the morphological and molecular level for the first time. Our results demonstrated that oxylipin mixtures had stronger effects on sea urchin embryos compared with individual compounds, confirming that PUAs induce malformations and HEPEs cause developmental delay. This harmful effect was also confirmed by molecular analysis. Twelve new genes, involved in stress response and embryonic developmental processes, were isolated from the sea urchin P. lividus; these genes were found to be functionally interconnected with 11 genes already identified as a stress response of P. lividus embryos to single oxylipins. The expression levels of most of the analyzed genes targeted by oxylipin mixtures were involved in stress, skeletogenesis, development/differentiation, and detoxification processes. This work has important ecological implications, considering that PUAs and HEPEs represent the most abundant oxylipins in bloom-forming diatoms, opening new perspectives in understanding the molecular pathways activated by sea urchins exposed to diatom oxylipins.

Marine Drugs ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Albarano ◽  
Nadia Ruocco ◽  
Adrianna Ianora ◽  
Giovanni Libralato ◽  
Loredana Manfra ◽  
...  

Oxylipins such as polyunsaturated aldehydes (PUAs) and hydroxyacids (HEPEs) are signaling molecules derived from the oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids. They are common in diatoms that constitute a major group of microalgae in freshwater and oceanic ecosystems. Although HEPEs represent the most common oxylipins produced by diatoms, little information is available on their effects on marine invertebrates, and most of the information has been obtained by testing individual HEPEs. Our previous studies reported that four hydroxyacids, i.e., 5-, 9-, 11-, and 15-HEPE, were able to induce malformations and a marked developmental delay in sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus embryos, which had not been reported for other oxylipins. Here, we tested a mixture of 5-, 9-, 11-, and 15-HEPE at different concentrations for the first time. The results showed that mixtures of HEPEs have synergistic effects that are much more severe compared to those of individual HEPEs: The HEPE mixtures induced malformations in sea urchin embryos at lower concentrations. Increasing HEPE mixture concentrations induced a marked increase in the number of delayed embryos, until all embryos were delayed at the highest concentration tested. At the molecular level, the HEPE mixtures induced variations in the expression of 50 genes involved in different functional processes, mainly down-regulating these genes at the earliest stages of embryonic development. These findings are ecologically significant, considering that during diatom blooms, sea urchins could accumulate HEPEs in concentrations comparable to those tested in the present study.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 230
Author(s):  
Francesca Glaviano ◽  
Nadia Ruocco ◽  
Emanuele Somma ◽  
Giuseppe De Rosa ◽  
Virginia Campani ◽  
...  

Physiological effects of algal metabolites is a key step for the isolation of interesting bioactive compounds. Invertebrate grazers may be fed on live diatoms or dried, pelletized, and added to compound feeds. Any method may reveal some shortcomings, due to the leaking of wound-activated compounds in the water prior to ingestion. For this reason, encapsulation may represent an important step of bioassay-guided fractionation, because it may assure timely preservation of the active compounds. Here we test the effects of the inclusion in alginate (biocompatible and non-toxic delivery system) matrices to produce beads containing two benthic diatoms for sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus feeding. In particular, we compared the effects of a diatom whose influence on P. lividus was known (Nanofrustulum shiloi) and those of a diatom suspected to be harmful to marine invertebrates, because it is often present in blooms (Striatella unipunctata). Dried N. shiloi and S. unipunctata were offered for one month after encapsulation in alginate hydrogel beads and the larvae produced by sea urchins were checked for viability and malformations. The results indicated that N. shiloi, already known for its toxigenic effects on sea urchin larvae, fully conserved its activity after inclusion in alginate beads. On the whole, benthic diatoms affected the embryogenesis of P. lividus, altering the expression of several genes involved in stress response, development, skeletogenesis and detoxification processes. Interactomic analysis suggested that both diatoms activated a similar stress response pathway, through the up-regulation of hsp60, hsp70, NF-κB, 14-3-3 ε and MDR1 genes. This research also demonstrates that the inclusion in alginate beads may represent a feasible technique to isolate diatom-derived bioactive compounds.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (15) ◽  
pp. 5201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Galasso ◽  
Susanna Celentano ◽  
Maria Costantini ◽  
Salvatore D’Aniello ◽  
Adrianna Ianora ◽  
...  

Programmed cell death, such as apoptosis and autophagy, are key processes that are activated early on during development, leading to remodelling in embryos and homeostasis in adult organisms. Genomic conservation of death factors has been largely investigated in the animal and plant kingdoms. In this study, we analysed, for the first time, the expression profile of 11 genes involved in apoptosis (extrinsic and intrinsic pathways) and autophagy in sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus embryos exposed to antiproliferative polyunsaturated aldehydes (PUAs), and we compared these results with those obtained on the human cell line A549 treated with the same molecules. We found that sea urchins and human cells activated, at the gene level, a similar cell death response to these compounds. Despite the evolutionary distance between sea urchins and humans, we observed that the activation of apoptotic and autophagic genes in response to cytotoxic compounds is a conserved process. These results give first insight on death mechanisms of P. lividus death mechanisms, also providing additional information for the use of this marine organism as a useful in vitro model for the study of cell death signalling pathways activated in response to chemical compounds.


2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 475 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. GARCIA-SANZ ◽  
P. G. NAVARRO ◽  
F. TUYA

Despite sea-urchins can play an important role affecting the community structure of subtidal bottoms, factors controlling the dynamics of sea-urchin populations are still poorly understood. We assessed the seasonal variation in recruitment of three sea-urchin species (Diadema africanum, Paracentrotus lividus and Arbacia lixula) at Gran Canaria Island (eastern Atlantic) via monthly deployment of artificial collectors throughout an entire annual cycle on each of four adjacent habitat patches (seagrasses, sandy patches, ‘urchin-grazed’ barrens and macroalgal-dominated beds) within a shallow coastal landscape. Paracentrotus lividus and A. lixula had exclusively one main recruitment peak in late winter-spring. Diadema africanum recruitment was also seasonal, but recruits appeared in late summer-autumn, particularly on ‘urchin-grazed’ barrens with large abundances of adult conspecifics. In conclusion, this study has demonstrated non-overlapping seasonal recruitment patterns of the less abundant species (P. lividus and A. lixula) with the most conspicuous species (D. africanum) in the study area.


Author(s):  
Iryna Yakovenko ◽  
Asaf Donnyo ◽  
Or Ioscovich ◽  
Benyamin Rosental ◽  
Matan Oren

Sea urchins are long-living invertebrates with a complex immune system which includes extended families of immune receptors. A central immune gene family in the sea urchins encodes for the Transformer (Trf) proteins. The Trf family was so far studied mainly in the purple sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. In this study, we explored this protein family in the Mediterranean Sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus. The PlTrf genes and predicted proteins were found to be highly diverse and showed a typical Trf size range and structure. We found that P. lividus coelomocytes and hemolymph contain different PlTrf protein repertoires with a shared subset which specifically bind E. coli bacteria. Using FACS, we identified five different P. lividus coelomocyte sub-populations with cell surface Trf protein expression. The relative abundance of the Trf-positive cells sharply increased following immune challenge with E. coli bacteria, but not following challenge with LPS or sea urchin pathogen V. penaeicida. Finally, we demonstrated that the phagocytosis of E. coli bacteria by P. lividus phagocytes is mediated through the hemolymph and is inhibited by blocking Trf activity with anti-Trf antibodies. Together, our results suggest collaboration between cellular and humoral Trf-mediated effector arms in the P. lividus specific immune response to pathogens.


Dose-Response ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. dose-response.0 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Pagano ◽  
Giuseppe Castello ◽  
Marialuisa Gallo ◽  
Ilaria Borriello ◽  
Marco Guida

A series of studies investigated the toxicities of tannery-derived complex mixtures, i.e. vegetable tannin (VT) from Acacia sp. or phenol-based synthetic tannin (ST), and wastewater from tannin-based vs. chromium-based tanneries. Toxicity was evaluated by multiple bioassays including developmental defects and loss of fertilization rate in sea urchin embryos and sperm ( Paracentrotus lividus and Sphaerechinus granularis), and algal growth inhibition ( Dunaliella tertiolecta and Selenastrum capricornutum). Both VT and ST water extracts resulted in hormetic effects at concentrations ranging 0.1 to 0.3%, and toxicity at levels ≥1%, both in sea urchin embryo and sperm, and in algal growth bioassays. When comparing tannin-based tannery wastewater (TTW) vs. chromium-based tannery effluent (CTE), a hormesis to toxicity trend was observed for TTW both in terms of developmental and fertilization toxicity in sea urchins, and in algal growth inhibition, with hormetic effects at 0.1 to 0.2% TTW, and toxicity at TTW levels ≥1%. Unlike TTW, CTE showed a monotonic toxicity increase from the lowest tested level (0.1%) and CTE toxicity at higher levels was significantly more severe than TTW-induced toxicity. The results support the view that leather production utilizing tannins might be regarded as a more environmentally friendly procedure than chromium-based tanning process.


1952 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 469-483
Author(s):  
LORD ROTHSCHILD ◽  
M. M. SWANN

1. The reactions of sea-urchin eggs (Psammechinus miliaris) to high concentrations of homologous spermatozoa have been investigated by a new method. 2. The method was to inseminate eggs with high concentrations of spermatozoa (108/ml.), which ensured that all eggs were fertilized for the first time at the beginning of the experiment; and then functionally to separate the eggs and spermatozoa at known times after the original insemination. 3. The proportion of polyspermic eggs in the suspension rises from zero at t=0 to a constant value at a time T, which is the conduction time of the block to polyspermy. In fourteen experiments on eggs from different sea-urchins, the estimated values of T were 17, 69, 72, 74, 94, 85, 26, 60, 31, 91, 85, 34, 75 and 67 sec. (arithmetic mean 63 sec.). The standard errors of the estimates of T, which are tabulated in the text, ranged from 5 to 15 sec. 4. These results confirm previous experiments which strongly suggested that the conduction time of the block to polyspermy was of the order of seconds; these earlier experiments were incompatible with a block to polyspermy lasting a fraction of a second. 5. At the same time experiments in this paper made it possible to estimate the fertilization parameter or sperm-egg interaction rate α, during the conduction of the block to polyspermy, and to compare it with the pre-fertilization α. In a given sperm suspension, α is a measure of the receptivity of the egg surface to spermatozoa. During the conduction of the block to polyspermy α was found to be markedly lower (1/20) than in unfertilized eggs. 6. This suggests that at fertilization there is a fast but incomplete block to polyspermy, whose conduction time may be 1 sec. or less. This is followed by the slower block which finally makes the egg impermeable to spermatozoa. This also confirms previous observations on the small incidence of polyspermy at normal sperm densities, which is not consistent with the concept of a slow block to polyspermy.


2015 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 727-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Collard ◽  
Samuel P. S. Rastrick ◽  
Piero Calosi ◽  
Yoann Demolder ◽  
Jean Dille ◽  
...  

Abstract Increased atmospheric CO2 concentration is leading to changes in the carbonate chemistry and the temperature of the ocean. The impact of these processes on marine organisms will depend on their ability to cope with those changes, particularly the maintenance of calcium carbonate structures. Both a laboratory experiment (long-term exposure to decreased pH and increased temperature) and collections of individuals from natural environments characterized by low pH levels (individuals from intertidal pools and around a CO2 seep) were here coupled to comprehensively study the impact of near-future conditions of pH and temperature on the mechanical properties of the skeleton of the euechinoid sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus. To assess skeletal mechanical properties, we characterized the fracture force, Young's modulus, second moment of area, material nanohardness, and specific Young's modulus of sea urchin test plates. None of these parameters were significantly affected by low pH and/or increased temperature in the laboratory experiment and by low pH only in the individuals chronically exposed to lowered pH from the CO2 seeps. In tidal pools, the fracture force was higher and the Young's modulus lower in ambital plates of individuals from the rock pool characterized by the largest pH variations but also a dominance of calcifying algae, which might explain some of the variation. Thus, decreases of pH to levels expected for 2100 did not directly alter the mechanical properties of the test of P. lividus. Since the maintenance of test integrity is a question of survival for sea urchins and since weakened tests would increase the sea urchins' risk of predation, our findings indicate that the decreasing seawater pH and increasing seawater temperature expected for the end of the century should not represent an immediate threat to sea urchins vulnerability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania Marzorati ◽  
Giordana Martinelli ◽  
Michela Sugni ◽  
Luisella Verotta

Commonly known as “purple sea urchin,” Paracentrotus lividus occurs in the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic Ocean. This species is a highly appreciated food resource and Italy is the main consumer among the European countries. Gonads are the edible part of the animal but they represent only a small fraction (10–30%) of the entire sea urchin mass, therefore, the majority ends up as waste. Recently, an innovative methodology was successfully developed to obtain high-value collagen from sea urchin by-products to be used for tissue engineering. However, tissues used for the collagen extraction are still a small portion of the sea urchin waste (<20%) and the remaining part, mainly the carbonate-rich test and spines, are discarded. Residual cell tissues, tests, and spines contain polyunsaturated fatty acids, carotenoids, and a class of small polyphenols, called polyhydroxynaphthoquinones (PHNQ). PHNQ, due to their polyhydroxylated quinonoid nature, show remarkable pharmacologic effects, and have high economic significance and widespread application in several cosmetic and pharmaceuticals applications. A green extraction strategy aimed to obtain compounds of interest from the wastes of sea urchins was developed. The core strategy was the supercritical CO2 technique, characterized by low environmental impacts. Fatty acids and carotenoids were successfully and selectively extracted and identified depending on the physical parameters of the supercritical CO2 extraction. Finally, the exhausted powder was extracted by solvent-based procedures to yield PHNQ. The presence of Spinochrome A and Spinochrome B was confirmed and extracts were characterized by a remarkably high antioxidant activity, measured through the 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) assay. Overall, the selective and successive extraction methods were validated for the valorization of waste from sea urchins, demonstrating the feasibility of the techniques targeting added-value compounds.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Grech ◽  
Ivan Guala ◽  
Simone Farina

Different species of echinoids and bivalves are suffering infectious diseases as the effect of ocean warming. In Sardinia (Western Mediterranean Sea) the keystone sea urchin species Paracentrotus lividus (Lamarck 1816) is widely appreciated as edible resource. Recently, a number of individuals were found to be infected by a no specified bacterial morphologically matching to a “bald sea urchin disease” (Fig. 1). In February 2019, a sampling campaign took place in two locations in the West and East Coast, inside and in proximity of local Marine Protected Areas. Field samplings were approved by the Regione Autonoma Sardegna (Fishing License for scientific purposes n.310/AP SCIE/N.1 10/01/2019). Samplings were carried out at the end of February 2019, when water temperature was 13°C. For each sampled site we performed two replicates of fast 50 m belt transects to estimate the infection rate as the total individuals infected on the total counted. The estimated infection rate was around 5% in both of sampled locations. A higher level of preyed sea urchins was observed, compared to natural predatory level previously observed in all the surveyed sites. Moreover, an unusual amount of dead sea urchins has been observed stranded on the storm berm, neighbouring one of the sampled sites. Microbiological analysis puts in evidence bacterial infection as the potential causal agent that could be temperature-related. Previous mass mortalities of sea urchins due to this infection were reported in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea in the past, where populations of shallow waters sharply declined until 75% during the summer period. A number of papers argued global warming might be linked to the occurrence of catastrophic events in the Mediterranean Sea, which could alter the host/pathogen range and modify pathogen transmission rates. Thus, the spread of the infection could cause important consequences at genetic, population, community and ecosystem level. In the study area, it seems already evident how predatory pressure on populations sampled was increased probably due to the lowering of the natural defences of the sea urchin preys as consequence of the infection. Accordingly, the outbreak of this infection probably related with environmental changes could determine important effects on trophic interactions and generating unpredictable cascading effects. In this area, an increasing of the sea urchin disease and related mortality is expected in the next months with the temperature increasing. A long-term monitoring across the summer season will be crucial to understand the extent and magnitude of the phenomenon as its implications.


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