Status of the reproductive system of bony fish from the Teterev River and the Kiev Reservoir 20 years after the Chernobyl accident

Abstract

The status of the reproductive system is investigated in five species of Teleostei from the Teterev River and the Kiev Reservoir (Ukraine), descendants of F42–F7 generations of fish exposed to radiation from the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Twenty years after the accident, a wide range of morphofuinctional anomalies of this system is present in fish. The most significant of them are: asymmetry and anomalous morphology of gonads, proliferation of connective tissue—sterilization, mass destruction of follicular and sex cells of various developmental stages, and hermaphroditism. Among the investigated species, disturbances of reproductive glands were preset to the highest extent in pike Esox lucius and crucian carp Carassius carassius. In the series of investigated generations the maximum frequency of occurrence of gonad anomalies was noted in F4 and F5, due to prolonged mutagenesis (Dubinin, 1986).