Genetic Ecotoxicology III: the Relationship Between DNA Strand Breaks and Genotype in Mosquito Fish Exposed to Radiation

DNA polymorphism in mosquito fish (Gambusia affinis), as revealed by RAPD (randomly amplified polymorphic DNA) and allozyme analysis, was compared to relative amounts of DNA strand breakage in blood and liver tissues. Mosquito fish were exposed to radionuclide contamination in situ and to X-rays in the laboratory. The types of RAPD metrics used were the number of RAPD bands per individual and the frequency of certain RAPD bands. In a previous study, it was noted that in some instances the number of RAPD bands and the frequency of certain RAPD bands were elevated in radionuclide-contaminated sites relative to reference sites. In the present study, it was found that the median molecular length (MML) of the DNA (which is inversely proportional to the amount of DNA strand breakage) was correlated in several cases to the number of RAPD bands per individual. In addition, for those RAPD bands that occurred at a higher frequency in mosquito fish from radionuclide-contaminated sites, DNA strand breakage was often lower for those fish with than without these RAPD bands. RAPD data obtained on mosquito fish exposed to X-rays in the laboratory paralleled those from the field. Furthermore, analysis showed that heterozygotes for the allozyme locus nucleoside phosphorylase were more prevalent in radionuclide-contaminated sites and had fewer DNA strand breaks than did homozygotes. These results provide additional evidence that changes in population genetic structure of mosquito fish exposed to a genotoxicant (radiation) can be detected at the DNA level.