Fig 1. Exposure to Mn induces GST-1 gene and protein expression.

(A) Synchronized L1 stage WT C. elegans were exposed to 50 mM MnCl₂ for 30 mins, mRNA was extracted and reverse transcribed to cDNA. Relative gene expression changes of gst-1 were quantitated using real-time PCR. The fold change in gene expression relative to GAPDH was calculated following the ΔΔCt method. Shown are mean ± S.E. of three individual replicates. p value was calculated using t-test analysis. Asterisk indicates p ≤ 0.04 between control and toxicant-exposed group ΔCt values. (B) Synchronized L1 stage WT nematodes were exposed to 50 mM MnCl₂ for 30 mins and allowed to recover for 24 h on NGM plates at 20°C. Following recovery/exposure, the worms were collected, homogenized and protein was quantified following standard a Bradford assay. For Western blot analysis, protein samples were separated by electrophoresis, transferred to a membrane, and probed with anti-GST-1 or GAPDH primary antibodies. Shown are mean ± SE of at least three individual replicates. p values were calculated using t-test analysis. Asterisks indicate p ≤ 0.03 between controls and Mn-exposed groups.