Coordinated changes of adenylate energy charge and ATP/ADP: Use in ecotoxicological studies

The coordinated variations of the adenylate energy charge and ATP/ADP ratio were modeled and a function that depends on the numerical value of the ade nylate kinase-catalyzed reaction has been derived. The model allows sensiti ve detection of the effects of xenobiotics on adenylate kinase and its cell ular environment and offers a robust estimation of the direct or indirect e ffects of pollutants on the adenylate kinase system: data obtained in labor atory studies on shrimp exposed to cadmium and in field studies on oysters either exposed to polychloro-biphenyl compounds or located in a heavily pol luted area indicate that xenobiotics affect the adenylate kinase reaction d irectly or by changing its cellular environment. These results demonstrate that application of the model to the treatment of ecotoxicological data all ows detection of energetic changes that would have been missed by simple an alysis of the usual energetic parameters, and should overcome problems enco untered in using energetic parameters during assessment of pollution monito ring. (C) 2000 Academic Press.