Exposure of ELF-EMF and RF-EMF Increase the Rate of Glucose Transport and TCA Cycle in Budding Yeast.

Kang-Wei Lin,Hui-Yong Lian,Chuan-Jun Yang,Peng Cai

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2016.01378

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the transcriptional response to 50 Hz extremely low frequency electromagnetic field (ELF-EMF) and 2.0 GHz radio frequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure by Illumina sequencing technology using budding yeast as the model organism. The transcription levels of 28 genes were upregulated and those of four genes were downregulated under ELF-EMF exposure, while the transcription levels of 29 genes were upregulated and those of 24 genes were downregulated under RF-EMF exposure. After validation by reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), a concordant direction of change both in differential gene expression (DGE) and RT-qPCR was demonstrated for nine genes under ELF-EMF exposure and for 10 genes under RF-EMF exposure. The RT-qPCR results revealed that ELF-EMF and RF-EMF exposure can upregulate the expression of genes involved in glucose transportation and the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, but not the glycolysis pathway. Energy metabolism is closely related with the cell response to environmental stress including EMF exposure. Our findings may throw light on the mechanism underlying the biological effects of EMF.

Highlights

Along with the rapid development of electric power and wireless communication equipment utilization, the strength, complexity, and coverage range of extremely low frequency electromagnetic field (ELF-EMF) and radio frequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) are increasing
To validate the differential gene expression (DGE) data, we examined the expression of all the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) identified under ELFEMF and RF-EMF exposure through reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR)
This was seen in previous analysis of gene expression profiles using DGE and RT-qPCR (Luan et al, 2011) and in analysis using microarray and RT-qPCR (Chen et al, 2012)

Summary

Introduction

Along with the rapid development of electric power and wireless communication equipment utilization, the strength, complexity, and coverage range of extremely low frequency electromagnetic field (ELF-EMF) and radio frequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) are increasing. Concerns regarding the health effects of ELF-EMF and RF-EMF have been raised. The question of whether ELF-EMF and RF-EMF induce biological effects that might be harmful to human health and the environment remains a controversial issue. Since an epidemiological study, conducted in 1979, found that the intensity of ELF-EMF is related to a high risk of childhood leukemia (Wertheimer and Leeper, 1979), the problem of electromagnetic pollution has attracted increasing attention. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified ELF-EMF and RF-EMF as suspected carcinogens (2B) in 2002 and 2011, respectively (IARC, 2002, 2013). Many studies have investigated the biological effects of RF-EMF and ELF-EMF at the epidemiological level as well as cellular- and molecular-levels, the basic interactions between

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Conclusion