Benjami Piña

Benjami Piña
Spanish National Research Council | CSIC · Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research

Ph.D.

About

328
Publications
57,591
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
9,898
Citations
Additional affiliations
November 1992 - September 2012
Molecular Biology Institute of Barcelona
Position
  • Researcher
January 1996 - December 2012
Spanish National Research Council
January 1992 - December 1997

Publications

Publications (328)
Poster
Full-text available
Glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine], the most widely used herbicide in the world, is a competitive inhibitor of 5-enolpyruvylsikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS), an enzyme of the shikimate pathway essential for the synthesis of aromatic amino acids in plants and some microorganisms, but not in animals. However, there are increasing evidences...
Article
Full-text available
Glyphosate, a globally prevalent herbicide known for its selective inhibition of the shikimate pathway in plants, is now implicated in physiological effects on humans and animals, probably due to its impacts in their gut microbiomes which possess the shikimate pathway. In this study, we investigate the effects of environmentally relevant concentrat...
Article
Full-text available
The regeneration of wastewater has been recognized as an effective strategy to counter water scarcity. Nonetheless, Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) effluents still contain a wide range of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) even after water depuration. Filtration through Soil Aquifer Treatment (SAT) systems has proven efficient for CECs remov...
Article
Full-text available
Although microbial degradation is a key sink of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in surface seawaters, there is a dearth of field-based evidences of regional divergences in biodegradation and the effects of PAHs on site-specific microbial communities. We compared the magnitude of PAH degradation and its impacts in short-term incubations of co...
Article
Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) effluents are important sources of antibiotics, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and resistant bacteria that threaten aquatic biota and human heath. Antibiotic effects on host-associated microbiomes, spread of ARGs and the consequences for host health are still poorly described. This study investigated changes of...
Article
Microplastics (MPs), plastic particles smaller than 5 mm in diameter, have received extensive attention as new environmental pollutants with still unexplored potential ecological risks. The main objective of the present study is to see if the concomitant exposure to MPs and Cd is more toxic than that to MPs or Cd separately in Aphanius fasciatus. I...
Article
Coastal ecosystems are currently exposed to pollutants and climate change. Namely, the increasing consumption of antineoplastics drugs and their potential release to aquatic ecosystems are raising concerns. Nevertheless, information regarding the toxicity of these drugs towards non-target species is scarce, especially considering climate change sce...
Article
Exposure to particulate matter (PM) has been associated with a wide range of adverse health effects, but it is still unclear how particles from various transport modes differ in terms of toxicity and associations with different human health outcomes. This literature review aims to summarize toxicological and epidemiological studies of the effect of...
Article
Full-text available
Background and chronic pollution by organic pollutants (OPs) is a widespread threat in the oceans with still uncharacterized effects on marine ecosystems and the modulation of major biogeochemical cycles. The ecological impact and toxicity of this anthropogenic dissolved organic carbon (ADOC) is not related to the presence of a single compound but...
Article
Full-text available
Environmental toxicogenomics aims to collect, analyze and interpret data on changes in gene expression and protein activity resulting from exposure to toxic substances using high-performance omics technologies. Molecular profiling methods such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatics techniques, permit the simultan...
Article
Recent studies have demonstrated the uptake of antibiotics (ABs) by crops from soils treated with AB-carrying fertilisers. However, there is a lack of plot-scale studies linking their effects at the agronomic and metabolomic/transcriptomic level to their impact on human health. This paper assesses the plant uptake of 23 ABs following two productive...
Chapter
One of the principal risks of the application of circular economy (CE) on wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is associated with the dissemination of antibiotic resistance (AR) through the reuse of treated wastewater (TWW) and the use of biosolids (BS) in agriculture. This chapter aims to provide an overview of the risks associated with EC under th...
Article
Full-text available
The reuse of treated wastewater (TWW) has been considered a suitable alternative for agriculture and for achieving water security and management. However, this practice may contribute to the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) into the environment, a matter of global concern. The aim of this study is to discuss the reuse of TWW in a...
Article
The tobacco-specific nitrosamine 4-(Methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) is a carcinogenic and ubiquitous environmental pollutant for which toxic activity has been thoroughly investigated in murine models and human tissues. However, its potential deleterious effects on vertebrate early development are yet poorly understood. In this wor...
Article
The spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) into agricultural soils, products, and foods severely limits the use of organic fertilizers in agriculture. In order to help designing agricultural practices that minimize the spread of ARG, we fertilized, sown, and harvested lettuces and radish plants in experimental land plots for two consecutive ag...
Article
Full-text available
Kraft mill effluents are characterized by their content of suspended solids, organic matter and color due to the presence of lignin, lignin derivatives and tannins. Additionally, Kraft mill effluents contain adsorbable organic halogens and wood extractive compounds (resin acids, fatty acids, phytosterol) and show high conductivity due to the chemic...
Preprint
Full-text available
The tobacco-specific nitrosamine 4-(Methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) is a carcinogenic and ubiquitous environmental pollutant which carcinogenic and cytotoxic activity has been thoroughly investigated in murine models and human tissues. However, its potential deleterious effects on vertebrate early development are yet poorly unders...
Article
Transcriptomic responses combined with apical adverse ecologically relevant outcomes have proven to be useful to unravel and anchor molecular mechanisms of action to adverse outcomes. This is the case for feeding inhibition responses in the model ecotoxicological species Daphnia magna. The aim of this study was to assess the transcriptomic response...
Article
Full-text available
Thousands of man‐made synthetic chemicals are released to oceans and compose the anthropogenic dissolved organic carbon (ADOC). Little is known about the effects of this chronic pollution on marine microbiome activities. In this study, we measured the pollution level at three sites in the Northeast Subarctic Pacific Ocean (NESAP) and investigated h...
Article
Global crop production is limited by water, nitrogen, and phosphorous availability. Reclaimed water and organic fertilizers, such as crop residues, animal manure, and biosolids, can mitigate these needs. However, these materials may contain different pollutants arising from, among others, human and veterinarian health care, industry, cleaning media...
Article
The spread of antibiotic resistance in bacteria is a matter of global concern, and the identification of possible sources of the associated genetic elements (antibiotic resistance genes -ARGs-, components of the horizontal gene transfer mechanism), is becoming an urgent need. While the transmission of ARGs in medical settings have been adequately c...
Poster
Introduction: Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are compounds that have the ability to mimic endogenous hormones, altering normal functioning of the endocrine system. They can modulate development, immunity and reproduction, among other body functions, and cause adverse effects at organism or population levels. After cessation of exposure to ED...
Article
Full-text available
The composition of bacteria inhabiting the sea-surface microlayer (SML) is poorly characterized globally and yet undescribed for the Southern Ocean, despite their relevance for the biogeochemistry of the surface ocean. We report the abundances and diversity of bacteria inhabiting the SML and the subsurface waters (SSL) determined from a unique samp...
Article
Metabolomics is currently an important field within bioanalytical science and NMR has become a key technique for drawing the full metabolic picture. However, the analysis of 1H NMR spectra of metabolomics samples is often very challenging, as resonances usually overlap in crowded regions, hindering the steps of metabolite profiling and resonance in...
Article
The occurrence of antibiotics (ABs) in four types of commercially grown vegetables (lettuce leaves, tomato fruit, cauliflower inflorescence, and broad bean seeds) was analyzed to assess the human exposure and health risks associated with different agronomical practices. Out of 16 targeted AB residues, seven ABs belonging to three groups (i.e., benz...
Article
The use of treated wastewater for crop irrigation is rapidly increasing to respond to the ever-growing demands for water and food resources. However, this practice may contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) in agricultural settings. To evaluate this potential risk, we analyzed microbiom...
Article
Full-text available
Bisphenol A (BPA) is an estrogenic contaminant linked to metabolic disruption. Developmental BPA exposure is of particular concern, as organizational effects may irreversibly disrupt metabolism at later life-stages. While BPA exposures in adult fish elicit metabolic perturbations similar to effects described in rodents, the metabolic effects of dev...
Article
Exposure to the antifouling tributyltin (TBT) has been related to imposex in mollusks and to obesogenicity, adipogenesis and masculinization in fish. To understand the underlying molecular mechanisms, we evaluated dose-response effects of TBT (1.7-56 nM) in zebrafish eleutheroembryos transcriptome exposed from 2 to 5 days post-fertilization. RNA-se...
Article
Disruptive effects of chemicals on lipids in aquatic species are mostly limited to obesogens and vertebrates. Recent studies reported that antidepressants, anxiolytic, antiepileptic and β-adrenergic pharmaceuticals, with putative distinct mechanisms of action at low environmental relevant concentrations, up-regulated common neurological and lipid m...
Article
Antibiotics can be uptaken by plants from soil desorption or directly from irrigation water, but their metabolization pathways in plants are largely unknown. In this paper, an analytical workflow based on high-resolution mass spectrometry was applied for the systematic identification of biotransformation products of ofloxacin in lettuce. The target...
Article
Predation is one of the main sources of mortality for fish larvae. During evolution, they have developed different anti-predator behaviours, as the vibrational-evoked startle response and its habituation, for promoting survival to predator's strikes. Whereas these two behaviours can be altered by the exposure to some neurotoxicants, it is currently...
Article
Full-text available
Exposure to acrylamide may lead to different neurotoxic effects in humans and in experimental animals. To gain insights into this poorly understood type of neurotoxicological damage, we used a multi-omic approach to characterize the molecular changes occurring in the zebrafish brain exposed to acrylamide at metabolite, transcript and protein levels...
Article
Full-text available
Bisphenol A (BPA; 4,4'-(propane-2,2-diyl)diphenol) has been shown to act as an obesogen and to disrupt lipid metabolism in zebrafish eleutheroembryos (ZE). To characterize the consequences of this disruption, we performed a detailed lipidomic study using ZE exposed to different BPA concentrations (0, 4, 6 and 8 mg/L of BPA) from day 2 to up to day...
Article
Full-text available
Assessing the risk of neuro-active pharmaceuticals in the environment requires an understanding of their joint effects at low concentrations across species. Here, we assessed reproductive and transcriptional effects of single and ternary equi-effective mixture exposure to propranolol, diazepam and carbamazepine on the crustacean Daphnia magna at en...
Article
Despite the social concern about the generalization of antibiotic resistance hotspots worldwide, very little is known about the contribution of different potential sources to the global risk. Here we present a quantitative analysis of the distribution of Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARGs) in soil, rhizospheric soil, roots, leaves and beans in tomat...
Article
Organophosphorus compounds are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors used as pesticides and chemical warfare nerve agents. Acute organophosphorus poisoning (acute OPP) affects 3 million people, with 300,000 deaths annually worldwide. Severe acute OPP effects include overstimulation of cholinergic neurons, seizures, status epilepticus, and finally, brain...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding the mode of action of the different pollutants in human and wildlife health is a key step in environmental risk assessment. The aim of this study was to determine signatures that could link morphological phenotypes to the toxicity mechanisms of four Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs): bisphenol A (BPA), perfluorooctanesulfonate pot...
Data
Supplementary raw data of the article: R. Martínez et al., “Morphometric signatures of exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals in zebrafish eleutheroembryos,” Aquat. Toxicol., vol. 214, p. 105232, Sep. 2019.
Article
Full-text available
The escape response evoked by vibrational stimuli and its habituation, essential behaviors for fish larvae survival, can be altered by neurotoxic environmental pollutants commonly found in our aquatic ecosystems. In this study we have analyzed the suitability of the Vibrational Startle Response Assay (VSRA) to obtain mechanistic information about t...
Article
Full-text available
Exposure to PFOS (perfluorooctanesulfonate) has been related to toxic effects on lipid metabolism, immunological response, and different endocrine systems. We present here a transcriptomic analysis of zebrafish embryos exposed to different concentrations of PFOS (0.03–1.0 mg/L) from 48 to 120 hpf. No major survival or morphological alterations (swi...
Article
Full-text available
Serotonin has a pivotal function regulating development, growth, reproduction and behavior in animals. In this paper, we studied the deregulatory effects of the deprivation of serotonin in Daphnia magna TRH CRISPR-Cas9 mutants. Bi-allelic in-del THR mutants and, to a lesser extent, mono-allelic ones grew less, reproduced later, and produced smaller...
Article
Thousands of semi‐volatile hydrophobic organic pollutants (OPs) reach open oceans through atmospheric deposition, causing a chronic and ubiquitous pollution by anthropogenic dissolved organic carbon (ADOC). Hydrophobic ADOC accumulate in cellular lipids, inducing harmful effects on marine biota, and can be partially prone to microbial degradation....
Article
Full-text available
The analysis of lipid disruption in invertebrates is limited by our poor knowledge of their lipidomes and of the associated metabolic pathways. For example, the mechanism by which exposure of the crustacean Daphnia magna to tributyltin, juvenoids, or bisphenol A increase the accumulation of storage lipids into lipid droplets is largely unknown/pres...
Poster
Organophosphorus (OP) compounds constitutea class of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors used as not only pesticides but also chemical warfare nerve agents. Acute OP poisoning (OPP) can result from occupational (agriculture, industry, research), accidental, suicidal or homicidal causes and can be graded by severity as mild, moderate and severe....
Article
The reuse of treated wastewater (TWW) for irrigation and the use of biosolids and manures as soil amendment constitute significant pathways for the introduction of the contaminants of emerging concern (CECS) to the agricultural environment. Consequently, CECS are routinely detected in TWW-irrigated agricultural soils and runoff from such sites, in...
Article
Social concern has raised during the last years due to the development of antibiotic resistance hotspots in different environmental compartments, including the edible parts of crops. To assess the influence of the water quality used for watering, we collected samples from soil, roots, leaves and beans from the legume plant Vicia faba (broad beans)...
Article
In nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolomics, most of the studies have been focused on the analysis of one-dimensional proton (1D 1H) NMR, whereas the analysis of other nuclei, such as 13C, or other NMR experiments are still underrepresented. The preference of 1D 1H NMR metabolomics lies on the fact that it has good sensitivity and a short acqu...
Article
The use of hyperspectral imaging techniques in biological studies has increased in the recent years. Hyperspectral images (HSI) provide chemical information and preserve the morphology and original structure of heterogeneous biological samples, which can be potentially useful in environmental –omics studies when effects due to several factors, e.g....
Article
While the presence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in agricultural soils and products has been firmly established, their distribution among the different plant parts and the contribution of agricultural practices, including irrigation with reclaimed water, have not been adequately addressed yet. To this end, we analyzed the levels of seven AR...
Chapter
Full-text available
The genome revolution has radically changed our view of biological systems. The quantitative determination of changes in all the major molecular components of the living cells, the “omics” approach, opened new fields for essentially all life sciences. Omic techniques generate huge datasets, usually at the high Gb/Tb level, that need to be decoded a...
Article
Acute exposure to nicotinic agonists induces myotoxicity in zebrafish embryos. The main goal of this work was to evaluate the potential myotoxicity of nicotine acetylcholine receptor agonists on adult zebrafish muscle tissue by using nicotine as a model compound. Liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) datasets...