PUBLICATION
Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals size-dependent effects of polystyrene microplastics on immune and secretory cell populations from zebrafish intestines
- Authors
- Gu, W., Liu, S., Chen, L., Liu, Y., Gu, C., Ren, H.Q., Wu, B.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-200225-43
- Date
- 2020
- Source
- Environmental science & technology 54(6): 3417-3427 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Keywords
- none
- Datasets
- GEO:GSE136108, GEO:GSE135767, GEO:GSE136109
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Intestines
- Microplastics
- Plastics
- Polystyrenes*
- Sequence Analysis, RNA
- Zebrafish*
- PubMed
- 32092251 Full text @ Env. Sci. Tech.
Citation
Gu, W., Liu, S., Chen, L., Liu, Y., Gu, C., Ren, H.Q., Wu, B. (2020) Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals size-dependent effects of polystyrene microplastics on immune and secretory cell populations from zebrafish intestines. Environmental science & technology. 54(6):3417-3427.
Abstract
Microplastics (MPs) as widespread contamination pose a high risk for aquatic organisms. However, current understanding of MP toxicity is based on cell population-averaged measurements. Our aim was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the size-dependent effects of polystyrene MPs (PS-MPs) on intestinal cell populations in zebrafish and characterize the interplay of MPs, intestinal cells and intestinal microbiota. Here, we used single-cell RNA sequencing to determine the transcriptome heterogeneity of 12000 intestinal cells obtained from zebrafish exposed to 100-nm, 5-μm and 200-μm PS-MPs for 21 days. Eight intestinal cell populations were identified. Combined with changes in intestinal microbiota, our findings highlight a previously unrecognized endpoint that all three sizes of PS-MPs induced dysfunction of intestinal immune cells (including effects on phagosomes and regulation of immune system processes) and increased the abundance of pathogenic bacteria. However, only 100-nm PS-MPs altered expression of genes related to phagocyte-produced ROS generation and increased mucus secretion by secretory cells. Microsize PS-MPs specifically changed the lysosome (5 μm) and cell surface receptor signaling (200 μm) processes of macrophages. Our findings pinpoint to cell-specific and size-dependent responses to PS-MPs in fish intestine, which can provide a reference for future study directions.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping