Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR) profiling of isolated organs in the snail Helix aspersa maxima

Abstract

• The 1 H NMR spectra showed characteristic metabolic profiles for each tissue. • Tissues contained LMW metabolites of metabolic pathways affected by toxic compounds. • Metabolic activity, cellular hypoxia and oxidative stress increased with Methomyl. • Kidney and pulmonary membrane were the main target organs of Methomyl exposure. Helix aspersa maxima is a terrestrial snail living at the air-ground interface, which makes it an ideal bioindicator candidate to evaluate environmental pollution. In this study, Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance ( 1 H NMR) based metabolomics approach was applied on diverse tissue extracts isolated from Helix aspersa individuals. This omics technique allows to characterize in one single spectroscopic measurement the global metabolic changes caused by pollution on the organism and to assess the potential of this species as a pollution indicator. In a first set of experiments conducted on naïve individuals, the main endogenous metabolites were identified. Those included amino and organic acids, Krebs cycle intermediates and a series of osmolytes. Next, a second group of animals was exposed to methomyl, a pesticide used in agriculture, in order to reveal what metabolic pathways were potentially affected by the pollutant. Our results indicate important fluctuations in energetic metabolism and several biomarkers of oxidative stress. In conclusion, this work demonstrates the potential of combining invertebrates models to metabonomics as a powerful tool to predict adverse effects of chemicals.