Transcriptomic response of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. roots to ibuprofen

ABSTRACT

Surface waters in urban areas are contaminated by ibuprofen (IBP), a popular and extensively used anti-inflammatory drug. In this study, we investigated the transcriptomic response in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. roots with the aim of revealing genes that are potentially involved in IBP detoxification and elucidating the effect of IBP on plants. IBP upregulated 63 and downregulated 38 transcripts (p-value < 0.1, fold change ≥2) after 2-day exposure to a 5-µM (1.03 mg/L) concentration of IBP under hydroponic conditions. Although the IBP concentration used in the experiment was highly relative to the concentrations found in rivers and wastewater, the number of genes with transcriptional changes was relatively low. The upregulation of cytochrome P450s, glutathione S-transferases, and UDP-glycosyltransferases indicates the occurrence of IBP oxidation in the first phase, followed by conjugation with glutathione and sugar in the second detoxification phase. ABC transporters could be involved in the transport of IBP and its metabolites. The identification of genes potentially involved in IBP detoxification could be useful in an IBP phytoremediation approach.

KEYWORDS:

• detoxification
• metabolism of xenobiotics
• gene expression
• microarrays
• phytoremediation

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the GENERI BIOTECH Company for microarray scanning and statistical processing of the microarray data. Further thanks are offered to Dr Helena Storchova for providing the hybridization chamber and Dr David Honys for providing the NanoDrop.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GA CR) research project No. 14-22593S.