The Comet Assay, a Sensitive Biomarker of Water Quality Improvement Following Adoption of Beneficial Agricultural Practices?

Numerous actions have been undertaken by farmers to attenuate the impact of agricultural activities on aquatic ecosystems. The identification of biomarkers that respond quickly to water quality improvement could facilitate the assessment of adopted alternative practices and help maintain mobilization among stakeholders. We evaluated the potential of the comet assay, a biomarker of genotoxic effects, using a freshwater mussel, Elliptio complanata, as a model animal.

Nitric oxide as a regulator of embryonic development.

The role of nitric oxide (NO) in activation of cGMP is well established. It has been proposed that the ratio of cAMP to cGMP may be important in the regulation of preimplantation embryonic growth and differentiation. Therefore, we determined the ability of murine preimplantation embryos to produce NO.