A comparison of the short-term toxicity of cadmium to indigenous and alien gammarid species

Amphipods play an important role in many aquatic ecosystems and are commonly used in ecotoxicology and ecosystem health assessment. Several alien gammarids have been introduced in many regions of the world during the last decades. In this study, we investigated if differences in cadmium sensitivity occurred between (1) different species belonging to the family Gammaridae and (2) different populations of the same species originating from a polluted or a non-polluted site. The acute cadmium toxicity to two indigenous (Gammarus pulex and Gammarus fossarum) and four alien (Dikerogammarus villosus, Echinogammarus berilloni, Gammarus roeseli and Gammarus tigrinus) gammarids occurring in Belgium was tested. Significant differences (P < 0.05) in median lethal concentrations (LC50) were found between the different species, with 72 h-LC50s ranging from 6.3 to 268 μg/l and 96 h-LC50s from 4.7 to 88.9 μg/l. No clear trend in Cd sensitivity was found when comparing indigenous and alien gammarids. D. villosus, an alien invasive species, was the most sensitive to Cd toxicity and E. berilloni, another alien species, the least sensitive. In addition, larger Gammarid species were more sensitive to Cd toxicity than smaller ones. No significant differences were found between populations of the same species originating from metal polluted sites or non-polluted sites. Overall, our results showed that considerable differences in Cd sensitivity exist between gammarid species, which should be taken into consideration in environmental risk assessment and water quality standard setting. Finally, our data suggest that alien gammarids would not have an advantage over indigenous gammarids in Cd contaminated environments

Genomics of visceral pain

Visceral pain is one of the most common pain conditions and among the top causes of disability worldwide. Visceral pain may be associated with a specific pathology such as gastroenteritis, inflammatory conditions; however, most chronic visceral pain does not have an identifiable pathophysiological origin that is known. The characterization of visceral pain in terms of location, intensity, and severity of symptoms for phenotyping and investigation of underlying mechanisms is of upmost important to better understand not only the underlying mechanisms but ultimately the treatment for this chronic debilitating painful symptom. The following chapter will review the state-of-the-science on the genomics of visceral pain and comorbid symptoms (stress and sleep disturbance) and review methods of phenotyping visceral pain and the multi-omic methods for measurement. Additional focus will include current challenges and areas of future discovery