PUBLICATION

Integrated zebrafish-based tests as an investigation strategy for water quality assessment

Authors
Shao, Y., Xiao, H., Di Paolo, C., Deutschmann, B., Brack, W., Hollert, H., Seiler, T.B.
ID
ZDB-PUB-181212-8
Date
2018
Source
Water research   150: 252-260 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Keywords
Large throughput screening, Tiered bioassays, Toxicity-based mixture elucidation, Zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Biological Assay
  • Cytochrome P-450 CYP1A1
  • Humans
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical*
  • Water Quality*
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
30528920 Full text @ Water Res.
Abstract
Water pollution risks to human health and the environment are emerging as serious concerns in the European Union and worldwide. With the aim to achieve good ecological and chemical status of all European water bodies, the "European Water Framework Directive" (WFD) was enacted. With the framework, bioanalytical techniques have been recognized as an important aspect. However, there are limitations to the application of bioassays directly for water quality assessment. Such approaches often fail to identify pollutants of concern, since the defined priority and monitored pollutants often fail to explain the observed toxicity. In this study, we integrated an effect-based risk assessment with a zebrafish-based investigation strategy to evaluate water sample extracts and fractions collected from the Danube. Four tiered bioassays were implemented, namely RNA-level gene expression assay, protein-level ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) assay, cell-level micronucleus assay and organism-level fish embryo test (FET). The results show that teratogenicity and lethality during embryonic development might be induced by molecular or cellular damages mediated by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) -mediated activity, estrogenic activity and genotoxic activity. With the combination of high-throughput fractionation, this effect-based strategy elucidated the major responsible mixtures of each specific toxic response. In particularly, the most toxic mixture in faction F4, covering a log Kow range from 2.83 to 3.42, was composed by 12 chemicals, which were then evaluated as a designed mixture. Our study applied tiered bioassays with zebrafish to avoid interspecies differences and highlights effect-based approaches to address toxic mixtures in water samples. This strategy can be applied for large throughput screenings to support the main toxic compounds identification in water quality assessment.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping