Marta Castro Ferreira

Research interests

My aim is to develop molecular tools to assess environmental stress in soil organisms.
Following standard ISO/OECD guidelines for toxicity testing, it is possible to study the toxic effects, caused by environmental contaminants, in the survival and reproduction of ecologically relevant soil invertebrates.

The mechanisms of toxicity can be further investigated by molecular techniques as gene expression studies.

I am interested in integrating results from standard toxicity tests and gene expression studies, as well as compare biological responses among annelid and arthropod taxa.

Selected Publications

Castro-Ferreira, M.P., D. Roelofs, C.A.M. van Gestel, R.A. Verweij, A.M.V.M. Soares and M.J.B. Amorim (2011). Enchytraeus crypticus as model species in soil ecotoxicology. Submitted.

Castro-Ferreira, M.P., D. Roelofs, C.A.M. van Gestel, M.J.B. Amorim and A.M.V.M. Soares (2010). Ultra-high Throughput TRANScryptOME Sequencing of Enchytraeus crypticus - Innovative Tool for Stress Response Assessment. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology; Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology157: S32-S32.

Research project

Molecular tools to assess environmental stress in soil organisms.

Soil ecosystems are inhabited by highly diverse fauna and flora communities, acting on crucial soil processes such as decomposition and bioturbation. Environmental pollution affects the quality of soil and also the fitness of communities inhabiting soil ecosystems. Soil ecotoxicology aims at studying the effects of exposure to environmental contaminants at biological endpoints as survival and reproduction. The ecologically relevant annelid Enchytraeus crypticus (shown at figure) was selected as test species aiming at studying the toxic effects caused by exposure to distinct chemicals. This species will be exposed and sampled from an array of toxicant treatments, ranges of temperature, soil moisture level, pH and developmental stages. Then transcriptome-wide collection of RNA will be followed by pyro-sequencing and annotation of Enchytraeus’ transcriptome. The sequence information generated will then be used to construct the high-density oligonucleotide microarray, which will be applied in the study of differential gene expression in response to toxicity. The results from this annelid will then be compared to the arthropod Folsomia candida, aiming at highlighting the biological mechanisms underlying the observed toxic effects.

Doctoral Grant from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal), funding the Doctoral Degree in progress at Aveiro University (Portugal) and VU University Amsterdam (The Netherlands).

                                      

Participants:Dick Roelofs, C.A.M. van Gestel, Nico M. van Straalen, Mónica J.B. Amorim and Amadeu M.V.M. Soares