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Increase in Developmental Instability in a Field-Collected Chironomus Population Maintained Under Laboratory Conditions

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Abstract

In order to be a relevant indicator of exposure towards teratogenic stressors, morphological defects should not be passed on to the next generation. In this study, we compare morphological variations in Chironomids collected from a contaminated river stretch with those of their progeny, reared in uncontaminated sediment under laboratory conditions. We focused on mentum defects (deformities, fluctuating asymmetry and mean shape change), measured by geometric morphometrics. We observed no significant variation in deformity rate between the parental generation and its progeny. On the contrary, we observed a significant increase in fluctuating asymmetry and a significant decrease in mentum centroid size in the offspring. Our results suggest that shape defects are not caused by direct exposure to teratogenic stressors alone. We propose four hypotheses to explain this: (a) teratogenic contaminants are present in egg-clutches, (b) contaminants at the sampling site have mutagenic effects, (c) costs of tolerance, and (d) contamination-induced genetic impoverishment.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support for this study came from the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, and from the French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks. Comments by anonymous reviewers considerably improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département Ville Durable, CEREMA Dter Ile de France, IFFSTTAR-ERA, n°35, 12 rue Teisserenc de Bort, 78190, Trappes, France

    Hélène Arambourou & Philippe Branchu

  2. Ecole Nationale du Génie de l’Eau et de l’Environnement de Strasbourg (ENGEES), 1 Quai Koch, BP 61039, 67070, Strasbourg, France

    Jean-Nicolas Beisel

  3. Laboratoire Image, Ville, Environnement (LIVE), UMR 7362, CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, 3 rue de l’Argonne, 67083, Strasbourg, France

    Jean-Nicolas Beisel

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  1. Hélène Arambourou
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  2. Philippe Branchu
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  3. Jean-Nicolas Beisel
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Correspondence to Hélène Arambourou.

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Arambourou, H., Branchu, P. & Beisel, JN. Increase in Developmental Instability in a Field-Collected Chironomus Population Maintained Under Laboratory Conditions. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 94, 681–687 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-015-1497-5

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