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Evidence of maternal copper and cadmium transfer in two live-bearing fish species

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Abstract

We studied maternal transfer of an essential metal (copper) and a non-essential one (cadmium) in the live-bearing fishes Heterandria formosa and Gambusia affinis. The goals of this study were: (1) to determine whether metals are transferred from exposed females to their developing offspring; (2) to determine if this transfer differs between two fish species that differ in their degree of maternal provisioning during development; (3) to determine the duration of maternal metal transfer once females are no longer exposed; and (4) to determine whether copper and cadmium are transferred equivalently. We exposed gravid females to background levels (control) or 0.15 µM of metal for 10 days, and then transferred them to clean water. We allowed females to give birth to up to three broods, and then quantified metal levels in offspring born at least 3 days after the transfer. We detected maternal metal transfer for both metals and in both species. Offspring metal levels decreased as females spent more time in clean water. Similarly, metal levels were lower in later broods than in earlier ones. Maternal metal transfer was higher in H. formosa than in G. affinis. Our results constitute the first report of maternal metal transfer in live-bearing fishes, and show that developing embryos acquire both essential and non-essential metals from their mothers in both species. This shows that metal toxicity may be an issue for live-bearing fish in clean environments when the previous generation has encountered metal pollution.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this research was provided, in part, by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Ecology Center and the university’s Graduate Student Organization (GSO). We thank the Ecology Center for use of its facilities. We are grateful for technical expertise and assistance provided by Lewis Deaton, Don Ennis, Edith Marsh-Matthews, Susan Mopper, Paul Leberg, Ion Cazan, Aracelly Morales, Janica Cazan, Hau Le, Andrew Oguma, Anita Pant, Emmanuel Blankson, Kruuttika Satbhai, and Latonya Jackson.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, P. O. Box 42451, Lafayette, LA, 70504-2451, USA

    Alfy Morales Cazan & Paul L. Klerks

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Cazan, A.M., Klerks, P.L. Evidence of maternal copper and cadmium transfer in two live-bearing fish species. Ecotoxicology 23, 1774–1783 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-014-1342-3

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