In situ assessment of genotoxic and mutagenic potential of polluted river water in Channa punctatus and Mystus vittatus

Basdeo Kushwaha,Satish Srivastava,Rashmi Srivastava,Anurag Dabas,Sanjay Pandey,Naresh Nagpure,Shilpi Sharma,Ravindra Kumar

doi:10.1186/2008-6970-4-16

Abstract

River Gomti, a tributary of river Ganga in northern India, is being polluted due to indiscriminate disposal of domestic sewage and industrial wastes that contain genotoxic chemicals. The study was conducted to evaluate the genotoxic potential of polluted water of river Gomti in two fish species, namely Channa punctatus and Mystus vittatus. The fishes were exposed in situ in nylon cages to the polluted water of river Gomti fixed near a distillery outlet located in Lucknow. The induction of DNA damage and micronuclei were determined in blood erythrocytes using comet assay and micronucleus test, respectively. The induction in micronuclei frequencies and DNA damage were found to be significantly elevated (p < 0.01) in exposed specimens after 3 days post-exposure as compared to the control, i.e. from laboratory-acclimatized fish specimens. The comparison of DNA damage between the two species indicated that C. punctatus is more sensitive to aquatic pollutants. Thus, this fish could be used as a bio-indicator of genotoxicity for bio-monitoring of water bodies. The results further revealed that the river Gomti is being contaminated with potential genotoxic and mutagenic chemicals produced from industrial and domestic activities; therefore, immediate measures are needed to reduce the inflow of pollutants in the river.

Highlights

In the inner area of the Sea of Ariake, rearing experiments were conducted to examine how the survival rates of juveniles of three bivalve species (Anadara kagoshimensis, Ruditapes philippinarum, Atrina sp.) vary among sea areas and heights above the seabed
Juvenile A. kagoshimensis are likely to survive somewhat better near the mouth of the bay than in the inner area of the bay (Nakamuta et al 2013) and in the water column compared to the seabed since the juveniles on spat collectors in the water column seem to survive better than the juveniles dropped from the collectors onto the seabed (Masaki and Onohara 2009)
Experimental design and replication differed among the three experimental runs, the patterns of horizontal and vertical variations in survival rates were similar among the runs in that the variations were great for only Atrina sp. in survival rates, as follows

Summary

Introduction

In the inner area of the Sea of Ariake, rearing experiments were conducted to examine how the survival rates of juveniles of three bivalve species (Anadara kagoshimensis, Ruditapes philippinarum, Atrina sp.) vary among sea areas and heights above the seabed. Koga and Aramaki 2013; Ito 2017; Ministry of the Environment 2017; see ‘‘Materials and methods’’ for the taxonomic problems with Atrina sp.) To restore these bivalve resources, it is necessary to elucidate how and why their densities vary spatially and temporally. The abundance of marine animals is in general strongly affected by the survival rate during their juvenile stage (e.g., Begon et al 2006; Broitman et al 2008; Haddon 2011) This relationship is presented for A. kagoshimensis (Masaki and Onohara 2009), R. philippinarum (Nasu et al 2008), and Atrina sp. The survival rates of juveniles of these bivalves in the Sea of Ariake are likely to vary horizontally (i.e., among sea areas) and vertically (i.e., between the seabed and water column). Juvenile Atrina sp. were found to survive better in the east peripheral area (Suzuki et al 2009) and in the water column than on the seabed (Matoba et al 2016)

Methods

Results

Conclusion