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Fig. 1 Short-term (24 h) exposure to environmental concentrations of fenitrothion induces neurotoxicity in 8 days-post fertilization zebrafish larvae. (A) Analysis of the basal locomotor activity (BLA), showing hypoactivity of larvae exposed to 1.7–170 ng/L and 17 μg/L. (B) Analysis of the visual-motor response (VMR), showing a significant increase in the mobility of larvae exposed to 0.17–17 μg/L during the first 2 min of the light/dark challenge. (C) Analysis of the acoustic/vibrational escape response shows a significant decrease of the escape response evoked by one tapping stimulus in larvae exposed to 0.17–17 μg/L fenitrothion, and an increase in the response in larvae exposed to 17 ng/L. (D) Kinematics of the vibrational escape response show an increase in the SLC/LLC ratio in larvae exposed to 17 μg/L (N.R.: non-responder; SLC: short-latency C-bend; LLC: long-latency C-bend). Data reported as mean ± SEM (n = 81–167 for BLA, n = 76–154 for VMR, n = 73–148 for acoustic/vibrational escape response and n = 12–15 for kinematic analysis SLC/LLC ratio) (E) Gene expression of five selected transcriptional markers of neurotoxicity in zebrafish larvae control or exposed to four Environmental concentrations of fenitrothion. Boxplot representation of ΔΔCt values, with the box indicating the 25th and 75th percentiles and the whiskers the maximum and minimum values. The thin line within the box marks the median (n = 6–8 pools). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001; one-way ANOVA with Dunnett's multiple comparison test. Data from 2 to 4 independent experiments.