Publication Date
3-1-2024
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Neurotoxicology and Teratology
Volume
102
DOI
10.1016/j.ntt.2024.107331
Abstract
Bisphenol F (BPF) is a potential neurotoxicant used as a replacement for bisphenol A (BPA) in polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. We investigated the neurodevelopmental impacts of BPF exposure using Drosophila melanogaster as a model. Our transcriptomic analysis indicated that developmental exposure to BPF caused the downregulation of neurodevelopmentally relevant genes, including those associated with synapse formation and neuronal projection. To investigate the functional outcome of BPF exposure, we evaluated neurodevelopmental impacts across two genetic strains of Drosophila— w1118 (control) and the Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) model—by examining both behavioral and neuronal phenotypes. We found that BPF exposure in w1118 Drosophila caused hypoactive larval locomotor activity, decreased time spent grooming by adults, reduced courtship activity, and increased the severity but not frequency of β-lobe midline crossing defects by axons in the mushroom body. In contrast, although BPF reduced peristaltic contractions in FXS larvae, it had no impact on other larval locomotor phenotypes, grooming activity, or courtship activity. Strikingly, BPF exposure reduced both the severity and frequency of β-lobe midline crossing defects in the mushroom body of FXS flies, a phenotype previously observed in FXS flies exposed to BPA. This data indicates that BPF can affect neurodevelopment and its impacts vary depending on genetic background. Further, BPF may elicit a gene-environment interaction with Drosophila fragile X messenger ribonucleoprotein 1 (dFmr1)—the ortholog of human FMR1, which causes fragile X syndrome and is the most common monogenetic cause of intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder.
Funding Number
5 SC2 GM132005
Funding Sponsor
National Institutes of Health
Keywords
Behavior, Bisphenol F, Drosophila melanogaster, Mushroom body, RNA-sequencing
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Department
Computer Science
Recommended Citation
Judith L.A. Fishburn, Heather L. Larson, An Nguyen, Chloe J. Welch, Taylor Moore, Aliyah Penn, Johnathan Newman, Anthony Mangino, Erin Widman, Rana Ghobashy, Jocelyn Witherspoon, Wendy Lee, and Kimberly A. Mulligan. "Bisphenol F affects neurodevelopmental gene expression, mushroom body development, and behavior in Drosophila melanogaster" Neurotoxicology and Teratology (2024). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ntt.2024.107331
