Divergent Proteomic Responses to Lead Exposure in House Sparrows (Passer domesticus)

Broken Hill house sparrows (Passer domesticus) preserved significantly higher haemoglobin concentrations despite equivalent blood lead levels, showing a distinct proteomic strategy versus Port Pirie.

• Why it matters: Lead mining towns offer a natural setting to test whether long-term contamination drives population-specific molecular responses that could mitigate toxicity and affect persistence.
• What they did: Wild-caught sparrows from Broken Hill and Port Pirie were profiled with data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry of blood and liver proteomes to compare lead-linked pathway changes.
• The result: Both towns showed mitochondrial proteome alteration and disrupted RNA splicing, but they diverged in haem biosynthesis and protein quality control: Broken Hill maintained ALAD and proteasomal/HSP70 upregulation, while Port Pirie showed ALAD collapse, BACH1 accumulation, and autophagy reliance.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.