Aiptasia pulchella: a tropical cnidarian representative for laboratory ecotoxicological research

Abstract

An urgent need exists to identify suitable tropical marine species for use in the development of sensitive and reliable test methods for routine laboratory ecotoxicological testing. Corals are a group of organisms not represented in routine ecotoxicology due to inherent difficulties in laboratory husbandry, and sea anemones from the same phylum (cnidaria) may be useful proxies. Aiptasia pulchella is a tropical symbiotic sea anemone with a wide geographic range. It is well suited to laboratory conditions and has been used extensively in research. However, its suitability as a toxicity test species has not been investigated. Assessment of juvenile recruitment in laboratory and semi-outdoor conditions showed higher production in semi-outdoor conditions; however, laboratory rearing produced enough recruits to run routine toxicity tests. In investigations of the sensitivity of A. pulchella to contaminants, acute tests were conducted on 1- to 2-mm juveniles using copper. Lethal concentration, 50% (LC50) values at 96 h estimated from tests using five and 10 replicates ranged from 30 to 83 and 60 to 90 µg/L, respectively, and a 28-d LC50 of 26 µg/L was estimated. During the present study, sublethal endpoints were investigated; chronic assessment of inhibited asexual reproduction looks promising (12-d effective concentration, 50% [EC50] 15 µg/L) and should be assessed further. Aiptasia pulchella is a species worthy of investigation as a cnidarian representative, and will be an invaluable contribution to tropical marine ecotoxicologists.

A review of nickel toxicity to marine and estuarine tropical biota with particular reference to the South East Asian and Melanesian region

“…Anemones are important species found on coral reefs of SEAM and are widely distributed throughout tropical and subtropical ecosystems (Howe et al 2012). Sea urchins are also important inhabitants of coral reefs; high diversity of sea urchins has been recorded in the Caribbean, and, while there has been limited sampling in SEAM, asteroids (starfish) and holothurians (sea cucumbers) appear to dominate in the Northeast Pacific ).…”

Effects of Cd, Co, Cu, Ni and Zn on asexual reproduction and early development of the tropical sea anemone Aiptasia pulchella

“…28-day tests using smaller anemones may result in considerably lower 28-day LC50 values. The 28-day EC50 values for copper are approximately four times lower than the mean 96-h LC50 value of 66 lg/L copper estimated from 10-replicate tests using smaller A. pulchella (Howe et al 2012).…”

“…involves cell reorganisation rather than production of new cells and therefore does not require substantial amounts of energy (Cary 1911). In previous experiments with A. pulchella, 28-day exposure to copper concentrations C30 lg/L completely inhibited asexual reproduction, and a mean 28-day EC50 value of 18 lg/L was estimated to completely inhibit asexual reproduction in 50 % of the test population (Howe et al 2012).…”

“…Nii and Muscatine 1997;Steen 1986;Lin et al 2000). A. pulchella has recently been identified as a potential new species for use in toxicological risk assessment throughout Australasia and the Indo-Pacific (Howe et al 2012), where there is a high demand for such studies due to the increasing pressures being placed on marine habitats (McClanahan 1999;Reichelt-Brushett 2012). A. pulchella is easily cultured in the laboratory in numbers sufficient for routine toxicity testing, and preliminary acute toxicity experiments found a relatively high sensitivity to trace metals when compared to other marine organisms including corals (Howe et al 2012(Howe et al , 2014a.…”

Impacts of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals on Reproduction in Wildlife

“…Others such as Lee et al ( 2012 ) have proposed the use of whole embryo culture and mouse embryonic stem cells as alternative models for the study of developmental toxicology. Focusing on species of most ecological relevance has led some authors, such as Scholz et al ( 2013 ), to concentrate on fi sh and amphibian cells for toxicity testing, while others have applied the same principle to the evaluation of chemicals that would be particularly relevant in terms of marine species such as corals (Shafi r et al 2003: Howe et al 2012.…”