PUBLICATION
Developmental Exposure to Low Concentrations of Methylmercury Causes Increase in Anxiety-Related Behaviour and Locomotor Impairments in Zebrafish
- Authors
- Glazer, L., Brennan, C.H.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-211025-39
- Date
- 2021
- Source
- International Journal of Molecular Sciences 22(20): (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Brennan, Caroline
- Keywords
- HPI-axis, anxiety, behaviour, developmental neurotoxicity, dopaminergic system, locomotor activity, methylmercury, zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Anxiety/etiology
- Behavior, Animal/drug effects*
- Disease Models, Animal
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/drug effects
- Embryonic Development/drug effects
- Gene Expression/drug effects
- Larva/drug effects
- Larva/physiology
- Locomotion/drug effects*
- Methylmercury Compounds/toxicity*
- Receptors, Dopamine D2/genetics
- Receptors, Dopamine D2/metabolism
- Zebrafish/growth & development
- Zebrafish/physiology*
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
- PubMed
- 34681620 Full text @ Int. J. Mol. Sci.
Citation
Glazer, L., Brennan, C.H. (2021) Developmental Exposure to Low Concentrations of Methylmercury Causes Increase in Anxiety-Related Behaviour and Locomotor Impairments in Zebrafish. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 22(20):.
Abstract
Methylmercury (MeHg) is a ubiquitous pollutant shown to cause developmental neurotoxicity, even at low levels. However, there is still a large gap in our understanding of the mechanisms linking early-life exposure to life-long behavioural impairments. Our aim was to characterise the short- and long-term effects of developmental exposure to low doses of MeHg on anxiety-related behaviours in zebrafish, and to test the involvement of neurological pathways related to stress-response. Zebrafish embryos were exposed to sub-acute doses of MeHg (0, 5, 10, 15, 30 nM) throughout embryo-development, and tested for anxiety-related behaviours and locomotor activity at larval (light/dark locomotor activity) and adult (novel tank and tap assays) life-stages. Exposure to all doses of MeHg caused increased anxiety-related responses; heightened response to the transition from light to dark in larvae, and a stronger dive response in adults. In addition, impairment in locomotor activity was observed in the higher doses in both larvae and adults. Finally, the expressions of several neural stress-response genes from the HPI-axis and dopaminergic system were found to be disrupted in both life-stages. Our results provide important insights into dose-dependent differences in exposure outcomes, the development of delayed effects over the life-time of exposed individuals and the potential mechanisms underlying these effects.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping