Proteomic profiles of Daphnia magna exposed to lead (II) acetate trihydrate and atrazine

In this study, acute toxicity tests were performed to evaluate the impacts of lead (II) acetate trihydrate and atrazine on aquatic organism using a typical freshwater flea, Daphnia magna. Besides, the proteomic profile of the treated D. magna (LC20) was investigated in the pH range from 3 to 10 using 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis method and then analyzed by the Progenesis software to explore the differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) compared to the control organisms. The results showed that there were 179 DEPs caused by these two toxic compounds. More interestingly, the identified DEPs have been found to be involved in energy metabolism, oxidative stress response, dynamic structure of cytoskeleton filaments and effected by two chemicals in opposite ways: up- and down-regulation. A significant difference of protein expression between the control and the stress-exposed D. magna which confirmed the effect of toxic chemicals has been observed. In summary, the proteomic approach as well as the detailed analysis results were proved to be useful for understanding the novel molecular mechanisms for lead or atrazine induced pathological changes. Moreover, specific DEPs can be used as novel biomarker candidates to detect these heavy metal and pesticide.