Genetic ecotoxicology I: DNA integrity and reproduction in mosquitofish exposed in situ to radionuclides

Female mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) were collected from two sites located on the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Reservation that are contaminated with 137Cs, 90Sr, other radionuclides and chemical genotoxicants. Fish from non- radionuclide contaminated environments located off the reservation were also collected. DNA, extracted from liver tissue and blood cells, was examined by gel electrophoresis for structural damage in the form of strand breakage. In general, the level of DNA strand breaks was elevated in fish from radionuclide-contaminated sites with observed differences in the number and type of strand breaks between liver tissue and blood cells. The number of malformed embryos was higher in fish at the contaminated sites, and varied with season. Fecundity was negatively correlated with the level of double strand breaks in the DNA of fish from one contaminated site. Females with broods that included malformed embryos had more DNA strand breakage than those that did not; and furthermore, a threshold effect was observed between the occurrence of malformed embryos and the presence of double strand breaks in the DNA of the mother. These findings have implications for both ecological risk assessment and evolutionary ecology