De Coen, W.M.

Parmentier, K.

Smagghe, G

Verhaegen, Y.

Open Marine Archive

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MOLECULAR MARKERS FOR CHRONIC TOXICITY OF MARINE 
POLLUTANTS IN NORTH SEA BROWN SHRIMP (CRANGON CRANGON L.)  
Verhaegen Yves1, Guy Smagghe2, Wim De Coen³ and Koen Parmentier1 
1 Instituut voor Landbouw en Visserij Onderzoek (ILVO), Eenheid Dier, Onderzoeksdomein 
Visserij, Ankerstraat 1, 8400 Oostende 
E-mail: yves.verhaegen@ilvo.vlaanderen.be  
² Universiteit Gent, Faculteit Bio-ingenieurswetenschappen, Vakgroep Gewasbescherming, 
Onderzoeksdomein Agrozoölogie, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Gent 
³ Universiteit Antwerpen, Faculteit Wetenschappen, Departement Biologie, Onderzoeksdomein 
Ecofysiologie, Biochemie en Toxicologie, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerpen 
 
Through its high abundance and high annual production, the common shrimp Crangon 
crangon L. (Crustacea; Decapoda; Caridea) exhibits a major influence on the benthic 
community structure in the North Sea and the European coastal waters. Furthermore, C. 
crangon is an economically important species. During mid-1950 to 1990 however, the 
annual catch decreased dramatically (FAO, 2008). While this trend is attributed to 
overfishing, it seems to coincide with the post-war large-scale application of several 
endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC’s, e.g. pesticides as DDT). While C. crangon is 
commonly used in seasonal field monitoring of ecosystem status and EDC 
concentrations, little ecotoxicological research has focussed on C. crangon, rendering 
any correlation between pollution load and ecologic effects impossible. Our first aim is 
to investigate the interference of three ubiquitous environmental contaminants (TBT, 
PFOS and BDE47) in C. crangon ecdysteroid signalling, a major invertebrate hormonal 
axis which is known to be very sensitive towards EDC’s. This will be achieved by in vitro 
luciferase reporter assays, that allows quantification of pollutant dependent activity of 
the heterodimeric CrcEcR-CrcRXR ecdysteroid receptor. Our second aim is to investigate 
the EDC dependent expression of a broad range of C. crangon genes, in order to 
obtain a distinct set of biomarkers. This set should render an extensive image of single 
pollutant effects on laboratory exposed shrimp. Sublethal effects in natural shrimp 
populations, which experience complex combinations of pollutants and abiotic 
conditions, can be assessed in a further stage. That aim will be achieved by analysing 
laboratory exposed shrimp with a microarray containing isolated gender-specific genes, 
obtained through subtraction-PCR. 
References 
FAO. 2008. Fishstat plus: Universal software for statistical time series. Food and Agriculture 
Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. Electronic webpage 
http://www.fao.org/fi/statist/FISOFT/FISHPLUS.asp. 
 


Molecular markers for chronic toxicity of marine pollutants in North Sea brown shrimp (<i>Crangon crangon</i> L.)

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