Abstract
This study was conducted to assess water pollution by examining DNA fragmentation in selected fish organs (kidney, liver, gills, and muscle tissue) from Wallago attu, Sperata sarwari, Vulgaris vulgaris, and Labeo rohita collected from a known polluted section of the Chenab River, Pakistan, and from a control site. The fish were caught using a gill net and were assigned to three different weight groups (W1, W2, and W3) to study the degree of variation in DNA fragmentation in relation to body weight. In fish from the polluted site, DNA fragmentation was higher in kidney, liver, gills, and muscles, compared to the control. No significant DNA fragmentation was observed in fish collected from the control site. Highly significant (P < 0.01) relationship between body weight and DNA fragmentation was found in the organs of fish procured at the contaminated site. DNA fragmentation in body organs was found to be affected by the concentrations of lead, copper, nickel, and cadmium in W. attu, S. sarwari, L. rohita, and V. vulgarus harvested from Chenab River. DNA fragmentation in different freshwater fish species is therefore a reliable biomarker of water pollution.
Highlights
Successful aquaculture depends on a continuous supply with pollution free water because fish is more sensitive to water pollutants
This study was conducted to assess water pollution by examining DNA fragmentation in selected fish organs from Wallago attu, Sperata sarwari, Vulgaris vulgaris, and Labeo rohita collected from a known polluted section of the Chenab River, Pakistan, and from a control site
DNA fragmentation in body organs was found to be affected by the concentrations of lead, copper, nickel, and cadmium in W. attu, S. sarwari, L. rohita, and V. vulgarus harvested from Chenab River
Summary
Successful aquaculture depends on a continuous supply with pollution free water because fish is more sensitive to water pollutants. Water can potentially be polluted with suspended solids, nutrients, heavy metals, organic matter, pesticides, and industrial chemicals (Boyd and Tucker, 1998). Streams, and other water bodies are often vulnerable to contaminants to organic and inorganic chemical toxicants, which has shown to produce detrimental effects on fauna and flora in aquatic. The rapid industrialization and urbanization is one of the most factors for increase in water pollution and becoming a serious challenge for the environmentalists (Mayon et al, 2006). The aquatic fauna and flora is exposed to the pesticides and heavy metals, which is main the main of genotoxicity in fish
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