Selection of assay, organism, and approach in biomonitoring significantly affects the evaluation of genotoxic potential in aquatic environments

Biomarkers for pollution in caged mussels from three reservoirs in Bulgaria: A pilot study

“…We proved that the monitoring of genotoxicity in freshwater, indigenous and caged mussels, using the comet assay of hemocytes is a rather sensitive method as stated by other authors [146,147,148]. Our study also confirmed that the Chinese pond mussel is a good bioindicator species for in situ genotoxicity assessment.…”

“…The latter has been demonstrated already through the method of comet assay in native populations from polluted waters [149,150,151]. The same is also valid for transplanted mussels [148].…”

“…The DNA damage due to genotoxic pollution proved by the comet assay technique on hemocytes in transplants in other studies during the last decade [84,148,149]. The highest values of TI% (28.8 AE 1.6 for Unio sp.…”

Combined use of biomarkers to assess the impact of untreated wastewater from the Danube River, Serbia

“…In Serbia, only about 16% of wastewater discharged into the wastewater collecting system was treated to some extent, while only 2% of industrial wastewater was treated (The Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia 2017). Many ex situ and in situ studies conducted in this part of the Danube revealed the harmful potential of such exposure, pointing to the importance of monitoring biota in pressured ecosystems (Subotić et al 2013a, b;Vuković-Gačić et al 2014;Aborgiba et al 2016;Marić et al 2020).…”

An integrated approach for chemical water quality assessment of an urban river stretch through Effect-Based Methods and emerging pollutants analysis with a focus on genotoxicity

“…DNA damage, as detected by the Comet (Single Cell gel Electrophoresis) assay, can be correlated to effects on life history traits such as growth, development, and reproduction of some organisms (Lourenco et al, 2010;Sukumaran et al, 2013;(Quinn et al, 2012); (Møller, 2018)) and may identify a potential risk for the fitness of natural populations. In general, the use of EBMs could be supportive also for the protection of human health (Marić et al, 2020). In fact, an association of specific cancers and exposure to disinfected water has emerged by epidemiological research, and several toxicity mechanisms for disinfecting by-products have been implicated, including genotoxicity which is of particular importance because of its link to mutagenicity and carcinogenicity (Lan et al, 2018).…”