PUBLICATION

Female reproductive impacts of dietary methylmercury in yellow perch (Perca flavescens) and zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Authors
DeBofsky, A.R., Klingler, R.H., Mora-Zamorano, F.X., Walz, M., Shepherd, B., Larson, J.K., Anderson, D., Yang, L., Goetz, F., Basu, N., Head, J., Tonellato, P., Armstrong, B.M., Murphy, C., Carvan, M.J.
ID
ZDB-PUB-171223-11
Date
2017
Source
Chemosphere   195: 301-311 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Carvan III, Michael J., Klingler, Rebekah Henderson
Keywords
Aquatic toxicology, Methylmercury, Reproductive toxicity, Transcriptomics, Yellow perch, Zebrafish
Datasets
GEO:GSE73615
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Diet*/adverse effects
  • Environmental Exposure*/adverse effects
  • Female
  • Lakes
  • Liver/drug effects
  • Methylmercury Compounds/pharmacology*
  • Ovary/drug effects
  • Perches/physiology*
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Reproduction/drug effects*
  • Zebrafish/physiology*
PubMed
29272799 Full text @ Chemosphere
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of environmentally relevant dietary MeHg exposures on adult female yellow perch (Perca flavescens) and female zebrafish (Danio rerio) ovarian development and reproduction. Yellow perch were used in the study for their socioeconomic and ecological importance within the Great Lakes basin, and the use of zebrafish allowed for a detailed analysis of the molecular effects of MeHg following a whole life-cycle exposure. Chronic whole life dietary exposure of F1 zebrafish to MeHg mimics realistic wildlife exposure scenarios, and the twenty-week adult yellow perch exposure (where whole life-cycle exposures are difficult) captures early seasonal ovarian development. For both species, target dietary accumulation values were achieved prior to analyses. In zebrafish, several genes involved in reproductive processes were shown to be dysregulated by RNA-sequencing and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (QPCR), but no significant phenotypic changes were observed regarding ovarian staging, fecundity, or embryo mortality. Yellow perch were exposed to dietary MeHg for 12, 16, or 20 weeks. In this species, a set of eight genes were assessed by QPCR in the pituitary, liver, and ovary, and no exposure-related changes were observed. The lack of genomic resources in yellow perch hinders the characterization of subtle molecular impacts. The ovarian somatic index, circulating estradiol and testosterone, and ovarian staging were not significantly altered by MeHg exposure in yellow perch. These results suggest that environmentally relevant MeHg exposures do not drastically reduce the reproductively important endpoints in these fish, but to capture realistic exposure scenarios, whole life-cycle yellow perch exposures are needed.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping