Combined proteomic and metallomic analyses in Scrobicularia plana clams to assess environmental pollution of estuarine ecosystems

González-Domínguez, Raul; Santos, Hugo Miguel; Bebianno, Maria João; García Barrera, Tamara; Gómez-Ariza, José Luis; Capelo, José Luis

Combined proteomic and metallomic analyses in Scrobicularia plana clams to assess environmental pollution of estuarine ecosystems

2016

Estuaries are very important ecosystems with great ecological and economic value, but usually highly impacted by anthropogenic pressure. Thus, the assessment of pollution levels in these habitats is critical in order to evaluate their environmental quality. In this work, we combined complementary metallomic and proteomic approaches with the aim to monitor the effects of environmental pollution on Scrobicularia plana clams captured in three estuarine systems from the south coast of Portugal; Arade estuary, Ria Formosa and Guadiana estuary. Multi-elemental profiling of digestive glands was carried out to evaluate the differential pollution levels in the three study areas. Then, proteomic analysis by means of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry revealed twenty-one differential proteins, which could be associated with multiple toxicological mechanisms induced in environmentally stressed organisms. Accordingly, it could be concluded that the combination of different omic approaches presents a great potential in environmental research.

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