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Toxics
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Earthworm Model to Study the Effects of Environmental Pollutants
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Earthworm Model to Study the Effects of Environmental Pollutants

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Exposome Analysis and Risk Assessment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 April 2022) | Viewed by 6190

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Martina Hockner

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Zoology, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Interests: stress response and gene regulation; stress physiology; immunity

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Earthworms are soil-dwelling invertebrates that are highly important in terrestrial ecosystems and of big value for functional soil ecology and health. However, due to their soil-dwelling lifestyle, earthworms are particularly exposed to a variety of environmental stressors ranging from natural fluctuations of biotic and abiotic factors to adverse chemical impacts, which can partly be attributed to anthropogenic involvement.

Having a coordinated environmental pollution response network at the molecular level is of major importance to earthworms for inducing general and specific coping mechanisms, which can lead to their adaptation to changing environmental conditions.

This highlights the value of research on earthworms with respect to conservation biology in addition to the effects of environmental pollution in rapidly changing terrestrial environments.

The aim of this Special Issue is to further our understanding of environmental pollution effects in earthworms as discerned from basic and applied research, mechanistic studies, omics approaches as well as comparative investigations.

Dr. Martina Hockner
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • earthworm
  • environmental pollution
  • gene regulation
  • metabolism
  • immunity
  • adaptation
  • pollution
  • stressor
  • chemicals

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 1040 KiB  
Article
The Survival Response of Earthworm (Eisenia fetida L.) to Individual and Binary Mixtures of Herbicides
by Elham Samadi Kalkhoran, Mohammad Taghi Alebrahim, Hamid Reza Mohammaddoust Chamn Abad, Jens Carl Streibig, Akbar Ghavidel and Te-Ming Paul Tseng
Toxics 2022, 10(6), 320; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics10060320 - 12 Jun 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2034
Abstract
Frequent use of herbicides may impose a risk on non-target species. The objective was to test the combined toxic effect of binary herbicide mixtures—metribuzin:halosulfuron and metribuzin:flumioxazin—on non-target earthworms in two test systems: filter paper and a soil toxicity test system. The joint action [...] Read more.
Frequent use of herbicides may impose a risk on non-target species. The objective was to test the combined toxic effect of binary herbicide mixtures—metribuzin:halosulfuron and metribuzin:flumioxazin—on non-target earthworms in two test systems: filter paper and a soil toxicity test system. The joint action experiments were independently run twice to substantiate the findings. The most potent individual herbicide was metribuzin, with a 50% lethal concentration (LC50) of 17.17 µg ai. cm−2 at 48 h in the filter paper test. The toxicity of the individual herbicides on the filter paper test was ranked as metribuzin>halosulfuron>flumioxazin. In the soil test, metribuzin and halosulfuron had high toxicity with an LC50 of 8.48 and 10.08 mg ai. kg−1, respectively, on day 14. Thus, the individual herbicide ranking did not change between the filter paper and artificial soil tests. The herbicide’s mixed effect in both test systems showed a consistent antagonistic effect relative to a Concentration Addition reference model. It indicates that the mixtures retracted the herbicide’s action in the earthworms. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Earthworm Model to Study the Effects of Environmental Pollutants)
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13 pages, 1259 KiB  
Article
DNA Methylation and Detoxification in the Earthworm Lumbricus terrestris Exposed to Cadmium and the DNA Demethylation Agent 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine
by Gerhard P. Aigner, Pamela Nenning, Birgit Fiechtner, Maja Šrut and Martina Höckner
Toxics 2022, 10(2), 100; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics10020100 - 21 Feb 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3429
Abstract
Earthworms are well-established model organisms for testing the effects of heavy metal pollution. How DNA methylation affects cadmium (Cd) detoxification processes such as the expression of metallothionein 2 (MT2), however, is largely unknown. We therefore exposed Lumbricus terrestris to 200 mg concentrations of [...] Read more.
Earthworms are well-established model organisms for testing the effects of heavy metal pollution. How DNA methylation affects cadmium (Cd) detoxification processes such as the expression of metallothionein 2 (MT2), however, is largely unknown. We therefore exposed Lumbricus terrestris to 200 mg concentrations of Cd and 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine (Aza), a demethylating agent, and sampled tissue and coelomocytes, cells of the innate immune system, for 48 h. MT2 transcription significantly increased in the Cd- and Cd-Aza-treated groups. In tissue samples, a significant decrease in MT2 in the Aza-treated group was detected, showing that Aza treatment inhibits basal MT2 gene activity but has no effect on Cd-induced MT2 levels. Although Cd repressed the gene expression of DNA-(cytosine-5)-methyltransferase-1 (DNMT1), which is responsible for maintaining DNA methylation, DNMT activity was unchanged, meaning that methylation maintenance was not affected in coelomocytes. The treatment did not influence DNMT3, which mediates de novo methylation, TET gene expression, which orchestrates demethylation, and global levels of hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), a product of the demethylation process. Taken together, this study indicates that Aza inhibits basal gene activity, in contrast to Cd-induced MT2 gene expression, but does not affect global DNA methylation. We therefore conclude that Cd detoxification based on the induction of MT2 does not relate to DNA methylation changes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Earthworm Model to Study the Effects of Environmental Pollutants)
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