De novo transcriptome assembly of brackish water flea Diaphanosoma celebensis based on short-term cadmium and benzo[a]pyrene exposure experiments

Abstract To develop a brackish water flea as a promising model for marine monitoring, Diaphanosoma celebensis were exposed to two pollutants, cadmium (Cd) and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), which have different chemical characteristics and distinct modes of metabolic action on aquatic animals. Twenty-four hours after exposure to Cd (2 mg/L) or BaP (25 μg/L), whole body transcriptomes were analyzed. In total, 99.6 Mbp were assembled from nine libraries, resulting in 98,458 transcripts with an N50 of 1883 bp and an average contig length of 968 bp. Functional gene annotations were performed using Gene Ontology, Eukaryotic Orthologous Groups, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analyses. Cd significantly modulated endocrine and digestive enzyme system. Following BaP treatment, DNA repair and circadian rhythm related metabolisms were significantly modulated. Both the chemicals induced stress response and detoxification metabolism. This brackish water flea genomic information will be useful to monitor estuaries and coastal regions, as water fleas have been confirmed as promising sentinel models in freshwater ecosystems.