Perfluorobutane Sulfonate (PFOS) Accumulation in Tissues of Cherax quadricarinatus and Its Toxicity Mechanism

Perfluoroctane sulfonate (PFOS) is an emerging pollutant widely existing in aquatic environments that has attracted many scholars' attention. <i>Cherax quadricarinatus</i> (<i>C. quadricarinatus</i>) are crustaceans that live in freshwater environments. This study aimed to investigate the long-term toxic exposure effect of PFOS on <i>C. quadricarinatus</i>. Three PFOS environment concentrations (1 ng/L, 100 ng/L, and 10 μg/L) were set for 28 days of exposure to <i>C. quadricarinatus</i>. The results indicated that PFOS was detected in the serum, muscle, and hepatopancreas of the <i>C. quadricarinatus</i>, and the order of accumulation levels was as follows: hepatopancreas > serum > muscle. Furthermore, transcriptomics showed that the function of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in PFOS exposure groups was related to biological processes, metabolism, organic system, and immune response. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis showed that DEGs were significantly enriched in the lysosome signaling pathway, retinol binding, fructose and mannose metabolism, and glutathione metabolism, etc., and the lysosome signaling pathway was the most significant, which indicated that lysosome signaling pathway is the key pathway for the toxic effects of PFOS on <i>C. quadricarinatus</i>.