Table 2.
Functional enrichment analysis of significant differentially expressed genes in C. elegans.
| A | |
|---|---|
| GO term (biological process) | P-value |
| Response to cadmium ion (GO:0046686) | 0.00008 |
| Response to metal ion (GO:0010038) | 0.007 |
| Proteolysis (GO:0006508) | 0.02 |
| Cellular iron ion homeostasis (GO:0006879) | 0.02 |
| Positive regulation of autophagy (GO:0010508) | 0.02 |
| Acylglycerol catabolic process (GO:0046464) | 0.02 |
| Ammonium transmembrane transport (GO:0072488) | 0.03 |
| GO term (molecular function) | P-value |
| Lipase activity (GO:0016298) | 0.006 |
| Hydrolase activity (GO:0016811) | 0.01 |
| Copper ion binding (GO:0005507) | 0.03 |
| Ferrous iron binding (GO:0008198) | 0.03 |
| Transition metal ion binding (GO:0046914) | 0.03 |
| Ammonium transmembrane transporter activity (GO:0008519) | 0.04 |
| Dipeptidyl-peptidase activity (GO:0008239) | 0.05 |
| B | |
| GO term (biological process) | P-value |
| Collagen and cuticulin-based cuticle development (GO:0040002) | 1.12 E-08 |
| Cuticle development involved in moulting cycle (GO:0042338) | 1.4 E-08 |
| Protein auto-processing (GO:0016540) | 0.02 |
| Metabolic process (GO:0006505) | 0.006 |
| Membrane lipid metabolic process (GO:0006643) | 0.02 |
| Pyrimidine nucleobase metabolic process (GO:0006206) | 0.02 |
| Sphingolipid catabolic process (GO:0030149) | 0.03 |
| Extracellular matrix organization (GO:0030198) | 0.005 |
| Biosynthetic process (GO:0006506) | 0.009 |
| Phosphatidylinositol biosynthetic process (GO:0006661) | 0.01 |
| Glycolipid biosynthetic process (GO:0009247) | 0.01 |
| GO term (molecular function) | P-value |
| Metallo-carboxypeptidase activity (GO:0004181) | 0.000006 |
| Carboxypeptidase activity (GO:0004180) | 0.0002 |
| Metallo-exopeptidase activity (GO:0008235) | 0.0003 |
| Carbon-nitrogen ligase activity (GO:0016884) | 0.02 |
| Sugar transmembrane transporter activity (GO:0051119) | 0.02 |
| Phspholipase activity (GO:0004620) | 0.03 |
In total, 91 genes were significantly up-regulated (A) and 684 significantly down-regulated (B) in C. elegans exposed to 20 µM Cd from L1 to L3 stage (cut-off of ≥ 2 & ≤ −2 fold change and a P-value ≤ 0.05). The analysis was conducted with WormEnrichr. No significantly changing cellular component GO terms were identified. The respective GO terms and the P-values are indicated.