| Summary: | In selected locations offshore of urban southern California, male hornyhead turbot (Pleuronichthys verticalis) exhibit elevated plasma concentrations of the female sex steroid, 17β-estradiol (E2). Males sampled from Santa Monica Bay have consistently elevated E2 concentration (>1000 pg/ml), as much as 10 times higher than males from locations offshore of Orange County. Since estrogens, including E2, are at undetectable levels in the ocean discharge of regional WWTPs, it was of interest to determine whether testicular expression of steroidogenic enzymes and other proteins impacting estrogen production may be altered and linked to endogenous E2 production. In this study, proteomics was used to screen for changes in testicular protein expression. In addition, proteomes of fish experimentally treated with E2 were compared to a control. These experiments resulted in the molecular characterization of 30 unique proteins, and provided some insight into potential underlying molecular mechanisms associated with this aberrant E2 phenotype.
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