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An Androgenic Agricultural Contaminant Impairs Female Reproductive Behaviour in a Freshwater Fish

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are a large group of environmental pollutants that can interfere with the endocrine system function of organisms at very low levels. One compound of great concern is trenbolone, which is widely used as a growth promoter in the cattle industry in many parts of th...

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Autores principales: Saaristo, Minna, Tomkins, Patrick, Allinson, Mayumi, Allinson, Graeme, Wong, Bob B. M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3643955/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23671634
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062782
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author Saaristo, Minna
Tomkins, Patrick
Allinson, Mayumi
Allinson, Graeme
Wong, Bob B. M.
author_facet Saaristo, Minna
Tomkins, Patrick
Allinson, Mayumi
Allinson, Graeme
Wong, Bob B. M.
author_sort Saaristo, Minna
collection PubMed
description Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are a large group of environmental pollutants that can interfere with the endocrine system function of organisms at very low levels. One compound of great concern is trenbolone, which is widely used as a growth promoter in the cattle industry in many parts of the world. The aim of this study was to test how short-term (21-day) exposure to an environmentally relevant concentration of 17β-trenbolone (measured concentration 6 ng/L) affects reproductive behaviour and fin morphology in the eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki). The mosquitofish is a sexually dimorphic livebearer with males inseminating females using their modified anal fin, the gonopodium, as an intromittent organ. Although the species has a coercive mating system, females are able to exert some control over the success of male mating attempts by selectively associating with, or avoiding, certain males over others. We found that females exposed to trenbolone approached males less and spent more time swimming away from males than non-exposed (control) females. By contrast, we found no difference in the behaviour of exposed and non-exposed males. Furthermore, exposure did not affect the anal fin morphology of males or females. This is the first study to demonstrate that exposure to an androgenic EDC can impair female (but not male) behaviour. Our study illustrates how anthropogenic contaminants can have sex-specific effects, and highlights the need to examine the behavioural responses of environmental contaminants in both sexes.
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spelling pubmed-36439552013-05-13 An Androgenic Agricultural Contaminant Impairs Female Reproductive Behaviour in a Freshwater Fish Saaristo, Minna Tomkins, Patrick Allinson, Mayumi Allinson, Graeme Wong, Bob B. M. PLoS One Research Article Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are a large group of environmental pollutants that can interfere with the endocrine system function of organisms at very low levels. One compound of great concern is trenbolone, which is widely used as a growth promoter in the cattle industry in many parts of the world. The aim of this study was to test how short-term (21-day) exposure to an environmentally relevant concentration of 17β-trenbolone (measured concentration 6 ng/L) affects reproductive behaviour and fin morphology in the eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki). The mosquitofish is a sexually dimorphic livebearer with males inseminating females using their modified anal fin, the gonopodium, as an intromittent organ. Although the species has a coercive mating system, females are able to exert some control over the success of male mating attempts by selectively associating with, or avoiding, certain males over others. We found that females exposed to trenbolone approached males less and spent more time swimming away from males than non-exposed (control) females. By contrast, we found no difference in the behaviour of exposed and non-exposed males. Furthermore, exposure did not affect the anal fin morphology of males or females. This is the first study to demonstrate that exposure to an androgenic EDC can impair female (but not male) behaviour. Our study illustrates how anthropogenic contaminants can have sex-specific effects, and highlights the need to examine the behavioural responses of environmental contaminants in both sexes. Public Library of Science 2013-05-03 /pmc/articles/PMC3643955/ /pubmed/23671634 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062782 Text en © 2013 Saaristo et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Saaristo, Minna
Tomkins, Patrick
Allinson, Mayumi
Allinson, Graeme
Wong, Bob B. M.
An Androgenic Agricultural Contaminant Impairs Female Reproductive Behaviour in a Freshwater Fish
title An Androgenic Agricultural Contaminant Impairs Female Reproductive Behaviour in a Freshwater Fish
title_full An Androgenic Agricultural Contaminant Impairs Female Reproductive Behaviour in a Freshwater Fish
title_fullStr An Androgenic Agricultural Contaminant Impairs Female Reproductive Behaviour in a Freshwater Fish
title_full_unstemmed An Androgenic Agricultural Contaminant Impairs Female Reproductive Behaviour in a Freshwater Fish
title_short An Androgenic Agricultural Contaminant Impairs Female Reproductive Behaviour in a Freshwater Fish
title_sort androgenic agricultural contaminant impairs female reproductive behaviour in a freshwater fish
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3643955/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23671634
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062782
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