Imposex is a condition in which females of dioecious marine snails develop rudimentary male characteristics. It is caused by tributyltin (TBT) used as an antifoulant in vessel paints since the late 1960s. Following the 2008 international ban on TBT, a decreasing rate of imposex has been observed worldwide. In Western Australia, imposex surveys of the whelk Thais orbita up to 2011 in the Perth metropolitan area suggested a decreasing trend but a significant recovery has not been confirmed. Collection of T. orbita from 11 sites in 2019 demonstrated a virtually complete recovery from imposex. Although it is generally accepted that male snails are not affected by TBT, the historical data set allowed confirmation that the male penis is of similar size in T. orbita collected at heavily affected sites and at relatively unaffected sites. Similarly, imposexed female snails had similar shell lengths to female snails at non-impacted sites.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111408 | DOI Listing |
Mar Pollut Bull
September 2020
School of Molecular and Life Sciences, PO Box U1987, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6845, Australia.
Imposex is a condition in which females of dioecious marine snails develop rudimentary male characteristics. It is caused by tributyltin (TBT) used as an antifoulant in vessel paints since the late 1960s. Following the 2008 international ban on TBT, a decreasing rate of imposex has been observed worldwide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAquat Toxicol
September 2016
The Swire Institute of Marine Science and School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China; State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address:
The intertidal whelk Reishia clavigera is commonly used as a biomonitor of chemical contamination in the marine environment along Western Pacific region, and as a model for mechanistic studies of organotin-mediated imposex development. However, limited genomic resources of R. clavigera have restricted its role for the investigation of molecular mechanisms of such endocrine disruptions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMar Pollut Bull
August 2014
The Swire Institute of Marine Science and School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China; The State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address:
Organotin compounds (OTs) have caused widespread adverse effects on marine organisms. As no local restrictions on OT-based antifouling paints have been implemented in China, high concentrations of OTs still occur in coastal environments. In this study, we measured the imposex status and tissue concentrations of OTs in the whelk Reishia clavigera collected along the coast of Dapeng Bay and Daya Bay of Shenzhen, China in 2013.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMar Pollut Bull
August 2014
The Swire Institute of Marine Science and School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China; State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address:
The intertidal whelk Reishia clavigera (formerly named as Thais clavigera) is one of the most sensitive species to organotin-associated imposex. However, the limited information on mRNA transcriptome of the species has restricted the molecular investigation on such endocrine disruption. By means of Illumina sequencing, we obtained a global de novo transcriptome from the gonadal tissues of both male and female R.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAquat Toxicol
September 2010
State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Environmental Science Research Center, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005 Fujian, China.
In this study, female and male Thais clavigera whelks were exposed to aqueous and dietary (using oysters as the prey) tributyltin (TBT) for up to 45 days, followed by a 30-day depuration, in order to examine the gender differences in TBT accumulation and transformation. The metabolites of TBT [dibutyltin (DBT) and monobutyltin (MBT)] were also measured in different tissues of the whelks (digestive, reproductive and remaining organs) during the exposure and depuration periods. By the end of the exposure period, all of the female whelks developed imposex after TBT exposure, and both the relative penis size index and the vas deferens sequence index were positively correlated with the tissue burden of TBT.
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