CHARACTERIZATION OF HSP60 RESPONSE IN THE ROTIFER, BRACHIONUS-PLICATILIS, EXPOSED TO MULTIPLE ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINANTS

Many bioassays examine the effects of a single stressor on organism he alth, but in the environment organisms are rarely, if ever, exposed to a single stressor. The development of an assay that measures overall organism health would be desirable. Stress proteins, including hsp60, are a group of highly conserved proteins that are induced in response to a variety, of environmental agents and are well suited to measure t he effects of multiple stressors due to their integrative nature (Sand ers (1993) Critical Reviews in Toxicology 23, 49-75). They hale been p ostulated to confer a protective response in the cell, shielding it fr om further protein damage. The goal of this investigation was to demon strate an integrative stress response to multiple environmental contam inants using the marine rotifer, Brachionus plicatilis, which has a de monstrated ability to produce hsp60 (Cochrane et al. (1991) Comparativ e Biochemistry and Physiology 98C, 385-390). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.