Transcriptional profiling induced by pesticides employed in organic agriculture in a wild population of Chironomus riparius under laboratory conditions

Copper (Cu) and azadirachtin (AZA-A + B) are pesticides allowed in organic agriculture whose environmental risk and toxicity for aquatic wildlife is only partially known. Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction was used to assess the molecular effect of acute and short-term exposure (3, 24 h) of Cu (0.01, 0.05, 1, 10, 25 mg l−1) and AZA-A + B (0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 1 mg l−1) on the expression of five candidate genes (hsp70, hsc70, hsp40, hsp10 and cyP450) in a non-target species, Chironomus riparius. Fourth-instar larvae were collected from a mountain stream polluted by agricultural land run-off. All genes were responsive to both pesticides but each gene had a specific response to the different experimental concentrations and exposure times. A few similarities in transcriptional profiling were observed, such as a linear concentration-dependent response of hsp70 after 24 h of exposure (at ≥1 mg l−1 of Cu and ≥0.2 mg l−1 of AZA-A + B) and an up-regulation regardless of the concentration of hsc70 after 24 h of exposure (at ≥0 mg l−1 of Cu and ≥0.2 mg l−1 of AZA-A + B and the up-regulation of hsp70 after 3 h of exposure at ~LC50 (Cu-LC50 = 26.1 ± 2.5 mg l−1, AZA-A + B-LC50 = 1.1 ± 0.2 mg l−1). According to the results, hsp40, hsp10 and cyP450 may be defined as pesticide-dependent (i.e., hsp40 and hsp10 seemed to responded mainly to AZA-A + B and cyP450 to Cu), while hsc70 as time-dependent regardless of the pesticide (i.e., hsc70 responded only after 24 h of treatmentwith Cu and AZA-A+B). This study gives new insights on the potential role of the C. riparius's hsps and cyP450 genes as sensitive biomarkers for freshwater monitoring.