Paraiba do Sul watershed is one of the most important Brazilian water bodies (5.5 million people depend on the river). It is in a critical environmental situation, polluted by industrial discharges, non-treated urban wastes, and pesticides, which have had cumulatively negative effects. This study analyzes the effects of pollution, with a biomarker approach, by using the invasive fish species, Oreochromis niloticus, as a sentinel species. The approach comprehends a general biomarker of the health of individual fish, the condition factor, a biomarker of genotoxicity, the micronuclei test; and specific biomarkers of contaminant exposure such as metallothionein (MT) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity. The results revealed different effects in fish from diverse locations with varying degrees of pollution. Low AChE activities were found in fish from the region with strong agriculture activity, showing the effects of pesticides. Fish from an industrialized and heavily environmentally degraded area presented high levels of MT and low AChE activities, indicating an intricate polluted condition. It is noteworthy that fish located just upstream of the main water-treatment plant of the metropolitan area Rio de Janeiro presented high levels of MT, showing to be affected by metals. This can be an alert to public health officials. O. niloticus has proven a suitable sentinel species to assess the effects of pollutions in an aquatic system with a complex and serious polluted situation. The present study also shows the usefulness of integrating a set of biomarkers to define the exposure and the effects of anthropogenic inputs among impacted and reference sites in this water body.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2008.03.028 | DOI Listing |
Dev Comp Immunol
December 2024
National Demonstration Center for Experimental Fisheries Science Education, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China; National Pathogen Collection Center for Aquatic Animals, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China; Key Laboratory of Freshwater Aquatic Genetic Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China. Electronic address:
Saprolegniasis is a common fungal disease in aquaculture. It will form white flocculent hyphae on the skin of fish, and the hyphae may grow inward and penetrate into muscle tissue, which will reduce the immunity of the body and eventually lead to death. However, there are still some gaps in the mechanism of the fish body surface against the invasion of Saprolegnia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Batoids possess a unique body plan associated with a benthic lifestyle that includes dorsoventral compression and anteriorly expanded pectoral fins that fuse to the rostrum. The family Myliobatidae, including manta rays and their relatives, exhibit further modifications associated with invasion of the pelagic environment, and the evolution of underwater flight. Notably, the pectoral fins are split into two domains with independent functions that are optimized for feeding and oscillatory locomotion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
December 2024
Global Ecology | Partuyarta Ngadluku Wardli Kuu, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia.
Assessing actual and potential impacts of non-native species is necessary for prioritising their management. Traditional assessments often occur at the species level, potentially overlooking differences among populations. The recently developed Dispersal-Origin-Status-Impact (DOSI) assessment scheme addresses this by treating biological invasions as population-level phenomena, incorporating the complexities affecting populations of non-native species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
December 2024
College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States of America.
The capacity for a non-native species to become invasive largely hinges on existing dispersal capacity or adaptation of dispersal in new environments. Here we provide early evidence that invasive Northern Pike (Esox lucius), a Holarctic freshwater top predator, illegally introduced in the late 1950s into Southcentral Alaska, are now dispersing through estuarine corridors. This finding represents the first known documentation of estuary use and dispersal by Northern Pike in North America, exacerbating conservation concerns for already depressed populations of culturally and economically important species such as salmonids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Surg
December 2024
Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 610072, Sichuan Province, China.
Background: Determining the benign or malignant status of indeterminate pulmonary nodules (IPN) with intermediate malignancy risk is a significant clinical challenge. Oral microbiota-lung cancer interactions have qualified oral microbiota as a promising non-invasive predictive biomarker in IPN.
Materials And Methods: Prospectively collected saliva, throat swabs, and tongue coating samples from 1040 IPN patients and 70 healthy controls across three hospitals.
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