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Erythrocytic abnormalities in three Antarctic penguin species along the Antarctic Peninsula: biomonitoring of genomic damage

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Abstract

Pollutants and toxic contaminants produced in all parts of the world are transported to remote regions including Antarctica. Tourism, research, and fishing activities on this continent are another source of contamination. Toxic substances affect Antarctic species, and some produced genomic damage to the fauna. The genetic damage can be detected by microscopic observation of erythrocytic nuclear abnormalities (ENAs). We counted the number of ENAs in seven populations of three Pygoscelid penguin species, Adélie (Pygoscelis adeliae), Chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarctica), and Gentoo (Pygoscelis papua), and found important differences among species exposed to the same conditions. ENAs were more frequent in Adélie penguins than in the other two species. Inter-population comparisons within species showed remarkable differences in Adélie and Chinstrap penguins but not in Gentoo penguin. Frequency of ENAs in Adélie penguins was the highest in Yalour Island population, intermediate in King George Island population, and the lowest in Torgersen Island and Avian Island populations. In Chinstrap penguins, the highest number of ENAs was found on Deception Island, and significant differences were found only between Deception Island and King George Island populations. This information will provide baseline data to be used for assessing the evolution of genomic damage of penguins along the Antarctic Peninsula in the future.

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Acknowledgments

M.J.P. was supported by a Ph.D. grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education (BES2005-8465). We thank the Spanish Antarctic base “Gabriel de Castilla,” the Argentinean Antarctic base “Carlini” (ex Jubany), the UTM (Maritime Technology Unit, CSIC), the Spanish Polar ship Las Palmas and the Argentinean Antarctic Institute for their logistic support. Permission to work in the study area and for penguin handling was granted by the Spanish Polar Committee. This is a contribution to the International Polar Year project 172 BIRDHEALTH and to PINGUCLIM project. Deborah Fuldauer revised the language of the manuscript. We greatly appreciate for the comments of three anonymous reviewers which improved an early version of the manuscript. This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Regional Development Fund under the Projects REN2001-5004/ANT, CGL2004-03148, POL2006-05175, CGL2007-60369 and CTM2011-24427 during writing.

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The authors declare that there are not conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ecología Funcional y Evolutiva, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, CSIC, Carretera de Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120, Almería, Spain

    Eva De Mas, Jesús Benzal, Francisco Valera, María José Palacios, José Javier Cuervo & Andrés Barbosa

  2. Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, C/José Gutiérrez Abascal, 2, 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Santiago Merino, José Javier Cuervo & Andrés Barbosa

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  1. Eva De Mas
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  2. Jesús Benzal
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  3. Santiago Merino
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  4. Francisco Valera
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  6. José Javier Cuervo
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  7. Andrés Barbosa
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Correspondence to Andrés Barbosa.

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De Mas, E., Benzal, J., Merino, S. et al. Erythrocytic abnormalities in three Antarctic penguin species along the Antarctic Peninsula: biomonitoring of genomic damage. Polar Biol 38, 1067–1074 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1667-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1667-2

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