Bioconcentration of phenanthrene and metabolites in bile and behavioral alterations in the tropical estuarine guppy Poecilia vivipara

Abstract

Quantification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) metabolites in fish bile is widely used to evaluate levels of internal PAH contamination in fish, whereas behavioral effects are deemed important to address potential risks to fish populations. The estuarine guppy Poecilia vivipara was exposed for 96h to waterborne phenanthrene at concentrations of 10, 50, 200 and 500μgL(-1). Phenanthrene and metabolites in bile were analyzed by fixed fluorescence at 260/380nm (excitation/emission) wavelengths. Phenanthrene increased in the bile of exposed fish in a dose-dependent pattern, and log bile bioconcentration factors ranged from 4.3 to 3.9 at 10 and 500μgL(-1) phenanthrene, respectively, values that are similar to predicted bioconcentration factors based on phenanthrene Kow. Swimming resistance index was reduced to 81% of control values at 500μgL(-1). Alteration of swimming speed was non monotonic, with a significant speed increase relative to control fish in treatments 50 and 200μgL(-1) phenanthrene, respectively, followed by a speed decrease in fish exposed to 500μgL(-1). However, swimming trajectories of fish exposed to 50, 200 and 500μgL(-1) was altered by the development of a repetitive circular swimming behavior, in contrast to the controls that explored the entire experimental arena. This change in swimming patterns apparently explains the reduction in prey capture rates at 200μgL(-1) phenanthrene. This study provides important information enabling the use of the estuarine guppy P. vivipara to monitor PAH metabolites in bile and its bioconcentration, linking internal exposure with ecologically relevant behavioral effects in the species.

Health Status of Sand Flathead (Platycephalus bassensis), Inhabiting an Industrialised and Urbanised Embayment, Port Phillip Bay, Victoria as Measured by Biomarkers of Exposure and Effects

“…Bile was extracted from each sample using a 1 ml syringe and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen until biliary metabolite determination through semi-quantitative fixed fluorescence (FF) measurement [ 11 , 13 ]. The method reports metabolized PAHs as ‘type of metabolites’.…”

Competitive Adsorption of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons to Carbon Nanotubes and the Impact on Bioavailability to Fathead Minnow (Pimephales promelas)

“…The retention times only slightly deviated from the water sample analysis and were 11.3 min for phenanthrene, 11.8 min for anthracene, 9.5 min for fluoranthene, and 10.7 min for pyrene. Following methods and definitions of Torreiro‐Melo et al (2015), the relative concentration of PAH in bile was calculated as PAH equivalents using calibration curves of PAHs prepared in the same background solution used to analyze the bile fluorescence by HPLC (i.e., 100% methanol for phenanthrene and anthracene; 100% acetonitrile for fluoranthene and pyrene). The observed area under the fluorescent peaks of individual PAHs was directly correlated to the concentration of PAH in solution.…”

“…Thus the PAH equivalent concentration calculated for bile samples allowed for a bile bioconcentration factor (BCF bile ) to be established. The BCF bile was calculated as the ratio of the concentration of PAHs in the bile (PAH bile ) compared with the concentration of the PAHs in water (PAH water ), as represented by the following equation (Torreiro‐Melo et al 2015): This allowed for changes in BCF bile to be assessed for each PAH due to the presence of another PAH and the presence of MWCNTs.…”

Histological and Behavioral Toxicity of Tributyltin in the Tropical Guppy Poecilia vivipara

“…The guppy Poecilia vivipara is widely distributed in South America, from Venezuela to Uruguay, and all along the Brazilian coast (Berbel‐Filho et al 2018). At juvenile and adult stages, P. vivipara has become an important ecotoxicological model used to study molecular effects of sewage (Piazza et al 2019), biochemical effects of the antifouling fungicide chlorothalonil (Lopes et al 2020), and phenanthrene bioconcentration and behavioral toxicity (Torreiro‐Melo et al 2015). However, there are no ecotoxicological studies focused on the effects of organotins on early life stages of P. vivipara .…”