Atrazine exposure affects longevity, development time and body size in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Atrazine is the one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States and non-target organisms may encounter it in the environment. Atrazine is known to affect male reproduction in both vertebrates and invertebrates but less is known about its effects on other fitness traits. Here we assessed the effects of five different chronic exposure levels on a variety of fitness traits in Drosophila melanogaster. We measured male and female longevity, development time, proportion pupated, proportion emerged, body size, female mating rate, fertility and fecundity. Atrazine exposure decreased the proportion pupated, the proportion emerged and adult survival. Development time was also affected by atrazine and exposed flies pupated and emerged earlier than controls. Although development time was accelerated, body size was actually larger in some of the exposures. Atrazine exposure had no effect on female mating rate and the effects on female fertility and fecundity were only observed in one of the two independent experimental blocks. Many of the traits showed non-monotonic dose response curves, where the intermediate concentrations showed the largest effects. Overall this study shows that atrazine influences a variety of life history traits in the model genetic system, D. melanogaster, and future studies should aim to identify the molecular mechanisms of toxicity.

Paternal exposure to a common herbicide alters the behavior and serotonergic system of zebrafish offspring

“…Paternal atrazine exposure was found to significantly decrease interactions with a mirror (a proxy for aggression) in male and female offspring from the 0.3ppb and 30ppb treatment. The lack of a significant decrease in aggression in the 3ppb treatment offspring (though the decrease was marginally non-significant) may be due to the non-monotonic nature of atrazine as found in other studies [3,[115][116][117][118]. For instance, Shenoy et al [3,68] found that male guppies prenatally exposed to 1 ppb were consistently less aggressive (within a mating context) than those prenatally exposed to 15 ppb.…”

An exploratory study of energy reserves and biometry as potential tools for assessing the effects of pest management strategies on the earwig, Forficula auricularia L

“…A lot of studies in other insects showed that pesticides can lead to morphometric variations. Marcus and Fiumera (2016) showed that exposure to atrazine, the one of the most widely used herbicides significantly affected male and female adult body size of Drosophila melanogaster. In Pterostichus melasitalicus, a carabidae, morphometric analyses also showed that dimethoate application caused a reduction in body or elytra lengths in females (Giglio et al 2011).…”

Oxidative stress in triazine pesticide toxicity: a review of the main biomarker findings

“…Two studies in drosophilids observed developmental and genotoxic effects (81,82), which prompted Figuera et al (63) to investigate if these effects were owed to oxidative stress. To do that, they exposed the embryos (newly fertilised eggs) of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to atrazine concentrations ranging between 10 and 100 µmol L -1 through diet until they developed into adult flies.…”