Metabolomic investigation of Mytilus galloprovincialis (Lamarck1819) caged in aquatic environments

Environmental metabolomic swas applied to assess the metabolic responses intransplant ed mussels to environmental pollution. Specimens of Mytilus galloprovincialis, sedentary filter feeders, were caged in anthropogenic impacted and references it esalong the August a coastline (Sicily,Italy). Chemical analysis revealed increased level sof PAH sin the digestive gland of mussels from the industrial area compared with control, and marked morphological changes were also observed. Digestive gland metabolic profiles, obtained by 1H NMR spectroscopy and analyzed by multivariate statistics, showed changes in metabolites involved in energy metabolism. Specifically, changes in lactate and acetoacetate could indicate increased an aerobic fermentation and alteration in lipid metabolism, respectively, suggesting that the mussels transplanted to the contaminated field site were suffering from adverse environmental condition. The NMR-based environmental metabolomic sapplied in this study results thus in it being a useful and effective tool for assessing environmental influences on the health status of aquatic organisms.