Teratogenesis in Fundulus heteroclitus embryos exposed to a creosote-contaminated sediment extract and CYP1A inhibitors

Effects of Anthropogenic Pollution on the Oxidative Phosphorylation Pathway of Hepatocytes from Natural Populations of Fundulus heteroclitus

“…A population of the salt marsh minnow, Fundulus heteroclitus, from the Elizabeth River, VA inhabits a Superfund site (an uncontrolled or abandoned site in the United States where hazardous waste is located) highly contaminated with PAHs (average ∼200-400 g/g sediments) and is resistant to the developmental toxicity of the sediments (Meyer and Di Giulio, 2002;Ownby et al, 2002;Meyer and Di Giulio, 2003;Wassenberg and Di Giulio, 2004;Burnett et al, 2007). In contrast, a nearby F. heteroclitus population from King's Creek, VA has been used as a genetically similar reference population.…”

Fundulus as the premier teleost model in environmental biology: Opportunities for new insights using genomics

“…In both laboratory and field studies, killifish have been used to document effects of environmental chemicals on many different end-points of reproduction and development such as viability and fertilizability of eggs and sperm (Khan and Weis, 1987a), cytogenetic effects (Crawford and Guarino, 1976;Perry et al, 1988;Black et al, 1998a,b), embryo mortality, rate of development, developmental deformities, time to hatching and hatching success (Weis and Weis, 1974;Crawford and Guarino, 1976;Weis and Weis, 1977;Black et al, 1998a,b;Ownby et al, 2002;Boudreau et al, 2004;Wassenberg and Di Giulio, 2004b;Boudreau et al, 2005;Wassenberg et al, 2005;Gonzalez et al, 2006;Timme-Laragy et al, 2006), as well as larval growth, spontaneous activity, prey-capture ability, startle response, learning ability, neurotransmitter levels (Zhou et al, 1999;Zhou et al, 2001;Weis et al, 2003;Timme-Laragy et al, 2006) and sex ratios (Matta et al, 2001). End-points used to assess reproductive condition of sexually mature adults include reproductive success, circulating sex steroids, gonadal size, hepatic size, yolk protein synthesis, and genetic markers such as CYP19 aromatases, ER and vitellogenin (Black et al, 1998a,b;Monteverdi and Di Giulio, 2000;Matta et al, 2001;MacLatchy et al, 2003;Boudreau et al, 2004;Boudreau et al, 2005;Greytak et al, 2005;Greytak and Callard, 2007).…”

“…Subsequent studies with pure compounds demonstrated marked synergistic toxicities between PAHs or PAH-like compounds that act as AHR agonists and other PAHs that inhibit CYP1A (Wassenberg and Di Giulio, 2004b). These studies included the model PAH-like compounds β-naphthoflavone (BNF, an AHR agonist) and α-naphthoflavone (ANF, a CYP1A inhibitor) (Wassenberg and Di Giulio, 2004a) and environmentally-relevant PAHs, such as BAP (AHR agonist) and fluoranthene (CYP1A inhibitor) (Wassenberg et al, 2005).…”

“…For example, zebrafish morpholino studies (Billiard et al, 2006) were employed to confirm that the AHR mediates the deleterious effects of certain PAHs on the developing cardiovascular system and that inhibition of CYP1A greatly enhances this effect. This synergy was first suggested by more traditional, and less conclusive, biochemical studies in F. heteroclitus (Wassenberg and Di Giulio, 2004a;Wassenberg and Di Giulio, 2004b). While morpholino technology recently was shown to work in F. heteroclitus (Matson, C.W., Clark, B.W., Jenny, M.J., Fleming, C.R., Hahn, M.E.…”

Adaptation of a Population of Fundulus heteroclitus to a Creosote-Contaminated Environment: Mechanisms, Genetic Consequences and Fitness Trade-Offs

“…However, as EROD substantially declines, at 1:10 and 1:5 dilutions, deformities arise and demonstrate dose-response (Figure 7). These studies are described in Wassenberg and Di Giulio (2004b).…”