Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

, Volume 185, Issue 6, pp 4745–4752 | Cite as

Unique phenotypes in the sperm of the earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae for assessing radiation hazards

  • Beryl Vedha Yesudhason
  • Jothipandi Jegathambigai
  • Pon Amutha Thangasamy
  • Durga Devi Lakshmanan
  • Johnson Retnaraj Samuel Selvan Christyraj
  • Emmanuel Joshua Jebasingh Sathya Balasingh Thangapandi
  • Muthukalingan Krishnan
  • Sudhakar Sivasubramaniam
Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

The earthworm, Eudrilus eugeniae is a segmented worm. It has two pairs of testes whose cells are highly proliferative. It was found that the earthworm, which is irradiated with X-ray, shows the following phenotypic changes in its sperm: fragmented acrosome in the head, break in the tail, and the appearance of zigzag sperm tail. Sperm morphology can be used as a tool to study radiation hazards in local areas. These three phenotypes were not observed in the sperm of worms exposed to different concentration of toxic chemicals such as sodium arsenate, lead acetate, and mercuric chloride. In contrast, exposure of worms to ethidium bromide caused fragmented acrosome in the head of their sperm cells.

Keywords

Earthworm Testis Radiation hazards Sperm 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This project was financially supported by UGC (University Grants Commission), New Delhi and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), New Delhi.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  • Beryl Vedha Yesudhason
    • 1
  • Jothipandi Jegathambigai
    • 1
  • Pon Amutha Thangasamy
    • 1
  • Durga Devi Lakshmanan
    • 1
  • Johnson Retnaraj Samuel Selvan Christyraj
    • 1
  • Emmanuel Joshua Jebasingh Sathya Balasingh Thangapandi
    • 1
  • Muthukalingan Krishnan
    • 2
  • Sudhakar Sivasubramaniam
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of BiotechnologyManonmaniam Sundaranar UniversityTamilnaduIndia
  2. 2.Department of Environmental BiotechnologyBharathidasan UniversityTamilnaduIndia

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