RESUMO
The present study was carried out to evaluate sub-lethal mechanism of acid mine drainage toxicity in fingerlings (9.5 ± 2.4 cm) of golden mahseer, Tor putitora. Exposed fingerlings showed significant reduction (P < 0.01) in blood erythrocytes, neutrophils, thrombocytes, lymphocytes and leukocytes in contrast to increase in number of immature circulating cells. Hyperplasia, degeneration of glomeruli, presence of inflammatory cells and increased number of melanomacrophage aggregates, vacuolization of cell cytoplasm, hepatocyte swelling were marked in kidney and liver of fish. Ladder in, an increment of 180-200 bp of hepatic and kidney DNA, by electrophoresis were consistent with DNA damage. 10 day exposure to acid mine drainage resulted in reduction of double stranded DNA to 46.0 and 48.0 in hepatocytes and kidney cells respectively. Significant increase (P < 0.01) in tail length and percent tail DNA was evident by comet assay. The results suggest that exposure to acid mine drainage might cause irreversible damage to immune cells, tissue and DNA of fish, and this model of DNA damage may contribute in identifying novel molecular mechanism of interest for bioremediation application.