Abstract
Induction of vitellogenin (VTG) is widely used as a biomarker of exposure of male or immature fish to chemicals that are agonists of the estrogen receptor (i.e., xenoestrogens). Analysis of VTG in samples of epidermal mucosa collected from fish is a non-invasive method for evaluating whether wild fish are exposed to xenoestrogens. In this study, the mean levels of VTG in the mucus of immature brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) collected from the Credit River in Ontario, Canada downstream of aging residential septic systems and in an agricultural watershed were 0.67 ng per mg protein, which was significantly elevated relative to the mean VTG levels of 0.22 ng per mg protein in the mucus of immature brook trout collected from a less impacted site. To validate the mucus assay, immature brook trout were exposed in the laboratory to 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) at nominal concentrations of 10, 50 and 100 ng/L and VTG levels in mucus from these fish showed a concentration-dependent increase relative to fish from the control treatment. This study illustrates the utility of this non-lethal method for assessing whether wild fish have been exposed in situ to xenoestrogens. Exposures to xenoestrogens from non-point sources may be impacting brook trout populations in urban watersheds in southern Ontario.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a Discovery Grant to CDM from the Natural Sciences and Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. We thank Naomi Stock of the Water Quality Centre at Trent for analyzing the water samples for EE2, graduate student Karl Weise, Mark Heaton and staff of OMNRF for their support in sampling wild Brook Trout as well as the staff of Hardwood Fish Culture Station.
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McGovarin, S., Nishikawa, J. & Metcalfe, C.D. Vitellogenin Induction in Mucus from Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis). Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 108, 878–883 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-021-03440-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-021-03440-z