A preliminary study on the expression level of P450 gene in liver and gill tissues of Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus Borodin, 1987) exposed to water soluble fractions of crude oil

The present study was conducted to investigate the expression level of cytochrome P450 enzyme in detoxification of water soluble fractions (WSFs) of crude oil in Persian sturgeon, Acipenser persicus. Fish were exposed to WSFs at concentrations of 0 (control), 10, 20, and 50% of the LC50 for 14 days, and then, the expression level of P450 gene was assayed in gill and liver samples. According to the results, the expression level of P450 gene increased in both the gill and liver tissues of fish when exposed to sub lethal concentrations of WSFs. High level of expression in treatment of 50% WSFs was observed compared to the control (p<0.05). However, no significant differences were observed between treatments of 10%, 20%, and 50% WSFs. Additionally, P450 was expressed higher in the gill tissue than the liver. The present research demonstrates that P450 gene expression can be used as a molecular biomarker to assay the severity of oil pollution in the Caspian Sea.