1. Burrowing in the freshwater mussel Elliptio complanata is sexually dimorphic and feminized by low levels of atrazine
- Author
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Marsha Dillon-White, Martin P. Schreibman, C. André, Benjamin S. Weeks, Jessica Hines, Katherine Flynn, François Gagné, Josephine A. Bonventre, and Maria Belopolsky Wedin
- Subjects
Male ,Gonad ,Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis ,Zoology ,Fresh Water ,Biology ,Toxicology ,Article ,Vitellogenin ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Vitellogenins ,Sex Factors ,medicine ,Animals ,Feminization ,Atrazine ,Gonads ,Sex Characteristics ,Behavior, Animal ,Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ,Herbicides ,Elliptio ,fungi ,Mussel ,Bivalvia ,biology.organism_classification ,Sexual dimorphism ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,chemistry ,biology.protein ,Female ,Water Pollutants, Chemical ,Sex characteristics - Abstract
The widely used herbicide atrazine (ATR) may have endocrine-associated adverse effects, including on behavior. In this study, 120 adult freshwater mussels, Elliptio complanata, were exposed to ATR at the environmentally-relevant concentrations of 1.5, 15, or 150 μg/L. Burrowing depth was evaluated hourly for 6 hr and at sacrifice animals were sexed by gonad smear. Female controls burrowed overall approximately 30% less than males, the first report of sexual dimorphism in this behavior. Atrazine at 15 μg/L feminized burrowing in both sexes in that exposed animals burrowed 20% less than their same sex controls. Males treated with 1.5 μg /L ATR displayed approximately 20-fold higher vitellogenin (VTG) levels than same sex controls. Higher concentrations of ATR were not associated with increasing effects. A scatterplot showed a weak binomial curve associating low burrowing with high VTG levels. Taken together, these data suggest a non-linear dose-response in behavioral and physiological feminization produced by ATR and support the need to reconsider the widespread use of this compound.
- Published
- 2013