Toxicological responses in Laeonereis acuta (annelida, polychaeta) after arsenic exposure

Arsenic toxicity in a sediment-dwelling polychaete: detoxification and arsenic metabolism

“…Arsenic species in the sediments used in this study were entirely inorganic with no measurable organic species (\0.005 mg/kg) but the speciation profile in the worms from both the lethal and sublethal exposures suggest that arsenate, the most abundant form of arsenic in marine and coastal oxygenated waters and oxidized sediments (Neff 1997), is initially reduced to arsenite and a small proportion (*3% m/m) is subsequently methylated to form DMA (Table 3). Biomethylation has been reported in mammalian species, involving glutathione and specific methyltransferase enzymes (Vahter 2002), and methylation capability has been suggested to occur in the polychaetes N. diversicolor and Nereis virens (Geiszinger et al 2002b), S. spallanzanii (Fattorini and Regoli 2004;Notti et al 2007) and Laeonereis acuta (Ventura-Lima et al 2007). Although A. marina is among the group of animals that accumulate a significant (if not major) proportion of the arsenic within its body in an inorganic form, as do other deposit-feeding polychaetes living in muddy sediments and several species of terrestrial oligochaetes (Lumbricidae; Geiszinger et al 1998), A. marina may have a limited biomethylation capacity according to the slight increase in DMA concentration upon exposure to dissolved arsenate (Geiszinger et al 2002a) and exposure to inorganic arsenic bound to sediments (this study).…”

A metabolomic investigation on arsenic-induced toxicological effects in the clam Ruditapes philippinarum under different salinities

“…Ventura-Lima et al (2011) has recently reviewed the toxicity of arsenic at biochemical levels in aquatic animals. Basically, arsenic can induce cytotoxicity and oxidative stress in both fishes and polychaete (Ventura-Lima et al, 2007, 2009Bhattacharya and Bhattacharya, 2007).…”

Accumulation, biotransformation, and biochemical responses after exposure to arsenite and arsenate in the estuarine polychaete Laeonereis acuta (Nereididae)

“…For example, Geiszinger et al (2002) observed in the polychaete Arenicola marina the predominance of inorganic As, while in other species such as Sabella spalanzanii, the predominant accumulated form is DMA (Fattorini and Regoli 2004). In a previous study of our laboratory, it was observed in the estuarine worm Laeonereis acuta the predominance of AB and DMA, although the accumulation of inorganic arsenic in this species also was substantial (Ventura-Lima et al 2007). …”

“…Polychaeta species are important sentinel organisms for monitoring the quality of marine environments, being previously established that these organisms posses a remarkable capability to accumulate As (Geiszinger et al 2002;Fattorini and Regoli 2004;Fattorini et al 2005;Ventura-Lima et al 2007). Marine animals generally accumulate arsenic as arsenobetaine (AB), a non-toxic compound, although other As compounds such as trimethylarsine oxide (TMAO), arsenocholine (AC), tetramethylarsonium ion (TETRA), dimethylarsinic acid (DMA), and monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) can be also detected.…”