Transcriptomic and proteomic fingerprints induced by the fungicides difenoconazole and metalaxyl in zebrafish embryos
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Updated: Jul 7, 2025
Metabolic Profile Analysis of Zebrafish Embryos
Published on: January 14, 2013
Fatma Marghany1, Steve U Ayobahan2, Gabriela Salinas3
1Department Ecotoxicogenomics, Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME, Schmallenberg, Germany; Department Evolutionary Ecology and Environmental Toxicology, Faculty Biological Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany; Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
Abstract:
In this study, we applied OMICs analysis to identify substance-specific biomarker candidates, which may act as early indicators for specific ecotoxic modes of actions (MoA). Zebrafish embryos were exposed to two sublethal concentrations of difenoconazole and metalaxyl according to a modified protocol of the OECD test guideline No. 236. At the end of exposure, total RNA and protein were extracted, followed by transcriptomics and proteomics analysis. The analysis of significantly differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) revealed a positive exposure-response correlation in all test concentrations for both fungicides. Similarly, also a positive correlation between the obtained transcriptome and proteome data was observed, highlighting the robustness of our approach. From the detected DEGs, candidate biomarkers specific for difenoconazole (apoa1b, gatm, mylpfb and acta1b) and metalaxyl (lgals2b, abat, fabp1b.1 and myh9a) were selected, and their biological functions were discussed to assess the predictive potential.
