Analysis of Multiple Toxicants of Biological Events in Folsomia Candida and Caenorhabditis Elegans

Abstract

Ecotoxic effects of soil pollutions are attracting attentions owing to the potential toxicity. 41 Generally, the soil toxicants mainly include metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, natural toxins and 42 drug residues. Transcriptomic analysis has been demonstrated to detect the toxicity induced by single 43 compounds. However, changes in biological events responding to multiple toxicants still remain unclear. In 44 this study, we performed bioinformatic analysis of gene expression in Folsomia candida exposed to 45 cadmium, phenanthrene, 2-phenylethyl isothiocyanate and diclofenac, and compared cadmium-induced 46 toxicological effects on Folsomia candida and Caenorhabditis elegans. The results indicate cadmium can 47 induce the most Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) and variations of biological events in Folsomia 48 candida and shown the Gene Ontology (GO) terms significantly enriched in metabolic pathways 49 responding to multiple toxicants. And more DEGs and GO terms induced by cadmium were observed in 50 Folsomia candida, rather than Caenorhabditis elegans. Overall, our study suggests the expression profile 51 of Folsomia candida is more suitable to evaluate toxicological effects of chemical toxicants, and the 52 selected DEGs, GO terms and metabolic pathways may be used as early biomarkers for monitoring of soil 53 toxicants.