Concentration of uranium (U), a naturally encountered radioactive element in earth's crust, can be enhanced in freshwater ecosystems (μg.L⁻¹ – mg.L⁻¹) due to various anthropogenic activities. The consequent aquatic organism exposure to U leads to its accumulation in all organs, particularly in the gonad, and in subcellular fractions (mainly the cytosol); then it is known to affect fish at several biological levels, and more particularly, at a reproduction endpoint, with a decrease in the total number of eggs, spawn events and larvae survival. The understanding of U reprotoxicity requires the fine knowledge of its speciation at molecular level, i.e., its interaction with cytosolic biomolecules. In this study, we focus on the U-protein interactions in gonads. A non-denaturating extraction protocol combined with size exclusion chromatography (SEC) allowed the separation of metal-protein complexes in ovaries of U-contaminated wild roaches before their elemental detection (ICP MS). This enables unprecedented information to be obtained about U distribution in ovaries of autochthonous fish, Rutilus rutilus, which is different in some points from that obtained in the model species, Danio rerio under controlled laboratory conditions at a similar concentration level. Finally, the ability to transpose results from model to autochthonous fish was briefly discussed.

由于各种人为活动，在地壳中天然遇到的放射性元素铀（U）的浓度在淡水生态系统（μg.L ^-1 -mg.L ^-1）中可以提高。随之而来的水生生物暴露于U导致其在所有器官中积累，特别是在性腺中以及亚细胞部分（主要是细胞质）中。那么就知道会在几个生物学水平上影响鱼类，尤其是在繁殖终点，同时减少卵总数，产卵事件和幼虫存活率。要了解U生殖毒性，需要对它在分子水平上的形态有深入的了解，即它与胞质生物分子的相互作用。在这项研究中，我们专注于性腺中的U蛋白相互作用。非变性提取方案与尺寸排阻色谱法（SEC）相结合，可以在元素检测（ICP MS）之前，先将U污染的野蟑螂卵巢中的金属-蛋白质复合物分离出来。这使得可以获得关于U分布在土生鱼类Rutilus rut​​ilus卵巢中的空前信息，该信息与模型物种Danio rerio在相似的浓度水平下在受控实验室条件下获得的信息有所不同。最后，简要讨论了将结果从模型转换为本地鱼的能力。