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. 2021 Aug 5;16(8):e0255066.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255066. eCollection 2021.

First transcriptome profiling of D. melanogaster after development in a deep underground low radiation background laboratory

Mikhail Zarubin  1 , Albert Gangapshev  2 , Yuri Gavriljuk  2 , Vladimir Kazalov  2 , Elena Kravchenko  1
Affiliations

First transcriptome profiling of D. melanogaster after development in a deep underground low radiation background laboratory

Mikhail Zarubin et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Natural background radiation is a permanent multicomponent factor. It has an influence on biological organisms, but effects of its deprivation still remain unclear. The aim of our work was to study for the first time responses of D. melanogaster to conditions of the Deep Underground Low-Background Laboratory DULB-4900 (BNO, INR, RAS, Russia) at the transcriptome level by RNA-seq profiling. Overall 77 transcripts demonstrated differential abundance between flies exposed to low and natural background radiation. Enriched biological process functional categories were established for all genes with differential expression. The results showed down-regulation of primary metabolic processes and up-regulation of both the immune system process and the response to stimuli. The comparative analysis of our data and publicly available transcriptome data on D. melanogaster exposed to low and high doses of ionizing radiation did not reveal common DEGs in them. We hypothesize that the observed changes in gene expression can be explained by the influence of the underground conditions in DULB-4900, in particular, by the lack of stimuli. Thus, our study challenges the validity of the LNT model for the region of background radiation doses below a certain level (~16.4 nGy h-1) and the presence of a dose threshold for D. melanogaster.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Locations and muon flux parameters of the BNO ground laboratory and the DULB-4900 low-background laboratory in the Andyrchy mountain (data from [32]).
Fig 2
Fig 2. Gene ontology biological process term enrichment analysis for up-regulated LB-flies genes.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Gene ontology biological process term enrichment analysis for down-regulated LB-flies genes.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Validation of the RNA-seq results by the RT-qPCR analysis.
The bar graphs represent the fold change in gene expression in the LB-flies vs. NB-flies. For all values p < 0.05.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Diagram representing the quantity of shared genes for D. melanogaster developed in the low-background conditions of DULB-4900 and after different treatments: Irradiation with low (20 cGy), high (144 Gy) doses of ionizing radiation (a) and fungal treatment, spaceflight, chronic circadian misalignment (b).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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