Main partitioning criteria for the characterization of the health status in the freshwater mussel Anodonta cygnea from spontaneously polluted area in western ukraine

Abstract

The aim of this study was to appreciate the consequences of spontaneous human activity for freshwater mollusks in the generally ecologically sustainable area in Western Ukraine. For this, bivalve mollusk, Anodonta cygnea, at three sites, with mixed agricultural and municipal activities (A), close to a municipal water inlet (F) and the cooling pond of a nuclear power plant (N), were studied in spring, summer, and autumn. The set of parameters included the characteristics of oxidative stress (activity of catalase (CAT), levels of protein carbonyls (PC)), levels of reduced and oxidized glutathione (GSH, GSSG, respectively), activities of lactate dehydrogenase (LD), cholinesterase (ChE), ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD), glutathione S-transferase (GST) in the digestive gland, and concentrations of vitellogenin-like proteins (Vtg-LP) in gonads and also morphological indices. Although the discriminant functional analysis confirmed the general seasonal regularities for studied groups, it allowed to discriminate between sites (P < 0.05). At site A, oxidative stress; high levels of LD, EROD, and GST; and low levels of ChE and condition factor were reflected. This demonstrated the sensitivity of mussels to constant effect of mixed pollution. At site N, oxidative injury was shown that might be explained by the constantly high temperature. At site F, abrupt elevations of Vtg-LP and EROD levels in autumn were probably related to an emergency situation on the nearby dump. So, both chronic and temporal environmental effects were reflected by a set of markers in mollusk. The classification and regression tree (CART) algorithm selected GSH and PC in the digestive gland and Vtg-LP as partitioning criteria for the characterization of mussel health status. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol, 2012.

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“…The variability of several biochemical and morphological indices between the groups and seasons without distinct regularity could complicate the assessment of the health status in the feral animals from these areas (Falfushynska et al, 2009(Falfushynska et al, , 2010(Falfushynska et al, , 2012. The high variability of the oxidative stress indices values, and their dependence more on the season than on the site (for GSH and TBARS, Mn-SOD and Cu,Zn-SOD), indicates this in the present study.Therefore, the assessment of several biomarkers is the most relevant way to evaluate the toxicity in the environment (Hagger et al, 2006;Cravo et al, 2013).…”

“…At site A, higher levels of Cu and Zn in the digestive gland tissue indicated its spontaneous pollution by agricultural and municipal wastes (Falfushynska et al, 2010(Falfushynska et al, , 2012. Despite this, the typical MT response to metal toxicity was absent: the level of metals in MTs and MT concentration was lower in these mussels throughout the three seasons.…”

“…However, later studies identified significant shifts in important cellular and biochemical characteristics indicating stress in the mussels from Khmelnytskyi NPP (Falfushynska et al, 2010(Falfushynska et al, , 2012. High levels of Cu in the environment could be the reason behind it (Falfushynska et al, 2010).…”

“…The studied area in Western Ukraine corresponded to this criterion, since it is characterised by an unsteady level and composition of background pollution, punctuated by the occurrence of emergency situations. The use of bivalve molluscs to reflect the peculiarities of this type of pollution by a multimarker approach was demonstrated in our previous reports (Falfushynska et al, 2009(Falfushynska et al, , 2010(Falfushynska et al, , 2012.…”

Molecular responses of the bivalve mollusks from the cooling pond as a model for prediction of contemporary environmental challenges

“…Zn, Cu and Cd concentration was measured in samples of weighed tissue of digestive gland (250 mg) of each specimen, and pooled eluate of low weight thermostable proteins after chromatography (10 mL) in each group of mussels (in triplicate). Chromatography of thermostable extract was accomplished on Sephadex G50, as described by [15]. The samples were dried for 24 h at 105 °C, and then digested with 5 ml HNO 3 for 3 h at 105 °C under pressure, using an acid-cleaned Teflon bomb.…”