Biotic and environmental stress induces nitration and changes in structure and function of the sea urchin major yolk protein toposome.

The major yolk protein toposome plays crucial roles during gametogenesis and development of sea urchins. We previously found that nitration of toposome increases in the gonads of a Paracentrotus lividus population living in a marine protected area affected by toxic blooms of Ostreospsis cf. ovata, compared to control populations. This modification is associated with ovatoxin accumulation, high levels of nitric oxide in the gonads, and a remarkable impairment of progeny development. However, nothing is known about the environmental-mediated-regulation of the structure and biological function of toposome. Here, we characterize through wide-ranging biochemical and structural analyses the nitrated toposome of sea urchins exposed to the bloom, and subsequently detoxified. The increased number of nitrated tyrosines in toposome of sea urchins collected during algal bloom induced structural changes and improvement of the Ca2+-binding affinity of the protein. After 3 months' detoxification, ovatoxin was undetectable, and the number of nitric oxide-modified tyrosines was reduced. However, the nitration of specific residues was irreversible and occurred also in embryos treated with metals, used as a proxy of environmental pollutants. The structural and functional changes of toposome caused by nitration under adverse environmental conditions may be related to the defective development of sea urchins' progeny.