Detection of cytogenetic and DNA damage in peripheral erythrocytes of goldfish (Carassius auratus) exposed to a glyphosate formulation using the micronucleus test and the comet assay

Abstract

Glyphosate is a widely used broad-spectrum weed control agent. In the present study, an in vivo study on the genotoxic effects of a technical herbicide (Roundup) containing isopropylamine salt of glyphosate was carried out on freshwater goldfish Carassius auratus. The fish were exposed to three doses of glyphosate formulation (5, 10 and 15 ppm). Cyclophosphamide at a single dose of 5 mg/l was used as positive control. Analysis of micronuclei, nuclear abnormalities and DNA damage were performed on peripheral erythrocytes sampled at intervals of 48, 96 and 144 h posttreatment. Our results revealed significant dose-dependent increases in the frequencies of micronuclei, nuclear abnormalities as well as DNA strand breaks. Our findings also confirmed that the alkaline comet assay and nuclear deformations in addition to micronucleus test on fish erythrocytes in vivo are useful tools in determining the potential genotoxicity of commercial herbicides.

Fish Toxicity of Commercial Herbicides Formulated With Glyphosate

“…However, this observation contrasts with other authors reports about experiences performed with other commercial herbicides toward Cyprinus carpio haematopterus [12] and Carassius auratus [17].…”

“…In addition these enzymes are inducible by toxicity due to herbicides [16]. In particular, the pyruvic transaminase is an enzyme used to assess liver function, so its high concentration in blood confers some specificity in the diagnosis of toxic liver damage [17].…”

“…The study involves morphology analysis of blood cells through microscopic observation of colored preparations, in order to distinguish cytoplasmic structures such as granular appearance, as vacuoles and lysosomes [17].…”

Re-registration Challenges of Glyphosate in the European Union

“…Formulated glyphosate preparations (Roundup R , Roundup Transorb R ) exerted even stronger toxicity to this and related guppy species (De Souza Filho et al, 2013;Harayashiki et al, 2013;Rocha et al, 2015;dos Santos et al, 2017) with exposure-time dependent hepatic histopathological damage (dos Santos et al, 2017) or genotoxicity (De Souza Filho et al, 2013). Roundup R was shown to affect hematological response and tissue AChE activity in carp (C. carpio) (GholamiSeyedkolaei et al, 2013;Kondera et al, 2018), increased glycogen and triacylglycerol consumption and lipid deposition in the liver, as well as changes in muscle glycogen in catfish (Rhamdia quelen) (Persch et al, 2018), DNA strand breaks in the goldfish (Carassius auratus) (Çavas and Könen, 2007;Lushchak et al, 2009;Li et al, 2017). Cytotoxicity by oxidative stress by Roundup R has been shown by transcriptomic profiling in carp and zebrafish (Uren Webster and Santos, 2015;Sulukan et al, 2017).…”

Insecticide Groups and Their Effects in Aquatic Environment

“…These structures are little structures which are separate from, but right next to the basic nucleus. Micronuclei can originate both from acentric fragments result in from chromosomal breaks which are not incorporated into the main nucleus and from whole chromosomes delayed during cellular division anaphase [22,31]. Due to the fact that fish generally have a large number of small chromosomes, there may be some difficulties in determining the clastogenic effects during metaphase studies.…”