Toxicological impacts and likely protein targets of bisphenol A in Paramecium caudatum

Abstract

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical agent widely used in plastic production and a well-known ubiquitous endocrine disruptor, frequently associated with a series of reproductive, developmental, and transgenerational impacts over wildlife, livestocks, and humans. Although widely studied, toxicological data on the effects of BPA are mostly restricted to mammalian models, remaining largely underexplored for other groups of organisms such as protists, which represents a considerable proportion of eukaryotic diversity. Here, we used acute end-point toxicological assay to evaluate the impacts of BPA over the survival of the cosmopolitan Paramecium caudatum; and a proteome-wide inverted virtual-screening (IVS) to predict the most likely P. caudatum proteins and pathways affected by BPA. This xenobiotic exerts a time-dependent effect over P. caudatum survival, which may be a consequence of impairments to multiple core cellular functions. We discuss the potential use of this ciliate as a biosensor for environmental BPA and as a new model organism to study the general impacts of this plasticizer agent over Eukaryotes. Finally, our data stress the relevance of bioinformatic methods to leverage the current knowledge on the molecular impacts of environmental contaminants over a diversity of biological systems.