Toxicidad ejercida por contaminantes acuáticos sobre microalgas de agua dulce

Resum

High concentrations of herbicides proceeding from the agricultural practices come to the aquatic systems, where they exercise its toxic action on no-target organisms, such as microalgae. These organisms are in the base of the trophic chain; any alteration carries effects of long scope on the set of the trophic chain and the flow of energy of the ecosystem, causing permanent functional and structural modifications in ecosystems. The main purpose of this project was to penetrate into the knowledge of the cellular response of the microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, to stress situations provoked by the exposure to atrazine. A methodological approach based on the analysis of the cytome, proteome and transcriptome of this microalga was proposed to characterize in depth the interaction xenobiotic-cell. Molecular and cellular alterations reported in the present work suggest that exposure to chemical substances, such as atrazine, induces ROS that produces physiological and biochemical alterations in cells that finally lead to the occurrence of cellular senescence alterations in the microalgal populations.