Transgenerational Proteome Plasticity in Resilience of a Marine Copepod in Response to Environmentally Relevant Concentrations of Microplastics

Here, we examined the multigenerational effect of microplastics (6-μm polystyrene beads; with different environmentally relevant concentrations of 0.023 and 0.23 mg/L in seawater) on the marine copepod Tigriopus japonicus under two-generation exposure (F0–F1) followed by one-generation recovery (F2) in clean seawater. Also, the seven life-history traits (survival, sex ratio, developmental time of nauplius phase, developmental time to maturation, number of clutches, number of nauplii/clutch, and fecundity) were measured for each generation. Furthermore, to investigate within-generation proteomic response and transgenerational proteome plasticity, proteome profiling was conducted for the F1 and F2 copepods under the control and 0.23 mg/L microplastics treatment. The results showed successful ingestion of microplastics in F0–F1 under both exposure concentrations, while higher concentration (0.23 mg/L) of microplastics resulted in the significant reduction in survival rate, number of nauplii/clutch, and fecundity. However, the affected traits were totally restored in the recovery generation (F2). Proteomic analysis demonstrated that microplastics exposure increased several cellular biosynthesis processes and, in turn, reduced energy storage due to the trade-off, hence compromising survival and reproduction of the treated copepods in F1. Interestingly, the two-generational effect of microplastics in copepods had significant transgenerational proteome plasticity as demonstrated by increased energy metabolism and stress-related defense pathway, which accounts for regaining of the compromised phenotypic traits during recovery (i.e., F2). Overall, this study provides a molecular understanding on the effect of microplastics at a translational level under long-term multigenerational exposure in marine copepods, and also the transgenerational proteome plasticity is likely rendering the robustness of copepods in response to microplastics pollution.