Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2025
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V59
Höfundar / Authors: Ashani Arulananthan1,2*, Oddur Þór Vilhelmsson1,3, Óttar Rolfsson4, Hans-Peter Grossart5,6, Auður Sigurbjörnsdóttir1, Ulf Karsten7, Bettina Scholz2
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: 1Faculty of Natural Resource Science, University of Akureyri. Iceland. 2BioPol ehf. Marine Biotechnology, Skagaströnd, Iceland. 3The Biomedical Center of the University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland. 4Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. 5Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Stechlin, Germany. 6
Kynnir / Presenter: Ashani Arulananthan
Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic pollutants, detected across the globe, including the Arctic and Antarctica. Studies have investigated the effects of long-chain legacy PFAS and their short-chain replacement compounds on microalgae; the impact of diverse PFAS compounds at environmentally relevant concentrations remains unclear. To study the impact of a mixture of six different PFAS types at the base of the marine food chain, diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana was exposed to an environmentally relevant concentration (900 pg/L) of each PFAS for 28 days. PFAS impacts on diatom growth, photosynthetic efficiency, stress response and gene expression were investigated. Among the 40047 annotated genes, 923 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were enriched in various pathways. Analysis showed 27 significantly enriched pathways. The majority of genes were associated with metabolic pathways (37.38%), followed by ribosome (17.33%), biosynthesis of secondary metabolites (4.84%), carbon metabolism (9.1%), nitrogen metabolism (7.26%), biosynthesis of amino acids (6.39%), carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms (5.2), and fatty acid metabolism (4.12%). Targeted metabolomic analysis identified 57 unique metabolites and showed increased amino acid metabolism, including proline and arginine production under PFAS exposure. Integrative omics profiling reveals that PFAS impaired growth, photosynthesis, osmotic balance, and carbon metabolism, threatening marine diatom productivity.