Genetic ecotoxicology II: population genetic structure in mosquitofish exposed in situ to radionuclides

Abstract

In 1977, approximately 250 mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) from a relatively uncontaminated site (Crystal Springs) were transplanted into a small pond on the Department of Energy Oak Ridge Reservation which is heavily contaminated with radionuclides (Pond 3513). Starting in 1992, DNA polymorphism was evaluated using the RAPD (Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA) and allozyme genotype techniques to determine if genetic differentiation had occurred between the two populations. Fish from a second radionuclide-contaminated population (White Oak Lake) and another unrelated non-contaminated population (Wolf Creek) were also examined. For the RAPD analyes, 15 RAPD primers (from a total of 40) were found to produce polymorphic banding patterns in at least two of the four populations and subsequently were used to produce a total of 142 bands. Data generated by these RAPD primers indicated an increased genetic diversity in radionuclide-contaminated sites relative to reference sites. Furthermore, the patterns from six RAPD primers produced a higher average number of bands when using DNA from radionuclide- contaminated populations than from non-contaminated, and for three RAPD primers the average number of bands from radionuclide- contaminated populations was lower. In addition, 17 bands occurred at a higher frequency in the radionuclide-contaminated compared to the non-contaminated populations. For the allozyme analyses, it was found that there was a higher percentage of polymorphism and heterozygosity in the radionuclide-contaminated relative to non-contaminated sites. These findings contribute to our understanding of the evolutionary effects of contaminant exposure as well as to the development of population-level biomarkers