Abstract
Triadimefon is a widely used triazole fungicide known to cause severe developmental defects in several model organisms and in humans. The present study evaluated in detail the developmental effects seen in zebrafish embryos exposed to triadimefon, confirmed and expanded upon previous phenotypic findings and compared them to those observed in other traditional animal models. In order to do this, we exposed embryos to 2 and 4 µg/mL triadimefon and evaluated growth until 120 h post-fertilization (hpf) through gross morphology examination. Our analysis revealed significant developmental defects at the highest tested concentration including somite deformities, severe craniofacial defects, a cleft phenotype along the three primary neural divisions, a rigorously hypoplastic or even absent mandible and a hypoplastic morphology of the pharyngeal arches. Interestingly, massive pericardial edemas, abnormal shaped hearts, brachycardia and inhibited or absent blood circulation were also observed. Our results revealed that the presented zebrafish phenotypes are comparable to those seen in other organism models and those derived from human observations as a result of triadimefon exposure. We therefore demonstrated that zebrafish provide an excellent system for study of compounds with toxic significance and can be used as an alternative model for developmental toxicity studies to predict effects in mammals.
Highlights
Triazole compounds belong to a broad group of fungicides used widely for the control of infectious diseases of both plants and humans [1]
The most significant retardation in the hatching rate of zebrafish embryos was observed at 77 hpf at both tested concentrations of 2 and 4 μg/mL of triadimefon
The results of the present study demonstrate that zebrafish embryos’ can be used as an alternative animal model for the detection of effects during the embryonic development
Summary
Triazole compounds belong to a broad group of fungicides used widely for the control of infectious diseases of both plants and humans [1]. Triadimefon, a triazole commonly used as a food preservative, an anti-microbial agent and as a plant protection product, was chosen as the preferred compound for phenotypic comparison between traditional animal models and the zebrafish organism. The developmental effects of triadimefon have been tested in various model organisms using both in vivo and in vitro approaches. Triadimefon exposure can affect mammalian species by causing multiple toxic effects on liver, thyroid, reproductive system as well as carcinogenicity and teratogenicity [4,5,6,7]. Triadimefon causes hepatocyte hypertrophy in a dose dependent manner [8] whereas in rats it has been found to act as a thyroid tumorigen [9]. Triadimefon treated rats exhibited reduced fertility and decrease in size in two generation reproduction studies [10]
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