Assessing toxicity in Daphnia magna: an oxidative lipidomic approach

White, Thomas Andrew (2014). Assessing toxicity in Daphnia magna: an oxidative lipidomic approach. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Lipidomics, an under-utilised and rapidly developing field aims to identify the full complement of hydrophobic constituents in a cell, tissue or organism. Lipid peroxidation, a major consequence of oxidative stress, represents a mechanistically illuminating marker for numerous toxicants. Lipidomics offers the ideal technique to acquire a greater level of mechanistic detail compared to currently utilised methodologies. Here, I present a study into lipid peroxidation from simple in vitro models to complex in vivo systems utilising mass spectrometric techniques. Initially, oxidised products from a systematic range of phospholipids were induced and comprehensively annotated to allow the development of OxyLipidBlast. This is the first tool facilitating the identification of oxidised lipids and provides utility to numerous fields. Secondly I present the first annotated lipidome of the keystone ecotoxicological species Daphnia magna and the first annotated lipidome of algal species Chlamydomonas reinhardtii published in English. Subsequent oxidation in vitro of lipid extracts yielded perturbations, biologically relevant to the following in vivo exposures with well established toxicants and novel silver nanoparticles. Overall the work presented in this thesis enhances both eco and oxidative lipidomics. However, these studies also highlighted the limitations of shotgun lipidomics for ecotoxicology assessment

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

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