Prenatal and perinatal fenarimol-induced genotoxicity in leukocytes of in vivo treated rats.

The identification of environmental compounds that have adverse effects on reproductive health and animal development is particularly challenging. Fenarimol, a systemic fungicide, is considered non or weakly genotoxic. However, its available toxicological data are controversial and incomplete. This study was conducted in rat in vivo to determine whether this compound (150 and 300 mg/kg) had adverse effects on DNA integrity in dams and pups after maternal subcutaneous exposure. The animals were exposed during early gestation (1-6 days), late gestation (last 6 days), or first 6 days of lactation. Findings on fenarimol genotoxicity showed an adverse effect when detected by the Comet assay, both in dams and pup, and state that animal sensitivity to fenarimol is higher during postnatal period. Since the DNA damage increases during the time of exposure (2 h to 6 days after the birth), our data on pups suggest that fenarimol can mainly act on cell DNA through direct exposure of litter via milk.

A short-term test adapted to detect the genotoxic effects of environmental volatile pollutants (benzene fumes) using the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans.

With the recent focus on environmental problems, increasing awareness of the harmful effects of industrial and agricultural pollution has created a demand for progressively more sophisticated pollutant and toxicity detection methods. Using Aspergillus nidulans strains this work presents a new short term-test that, most importantly, enables the rapid and inexpensive detection of volatile pollutants that induce genotoxic/carcinogenic effects in animals. The main aim is to contribute to environmental health protection, and special attention is directed to monitoring the hazard posed by benzene (as a carcinogenic agent model) mainly because its ubiquitous presence often leads to severe noxious effects in humans among whom increased rates of human leukemia have been reported. To evaluate even the submutagenic effects of benzene fumes, two Aspergillus nidulans diploid strains, heterozygous for several auxotrophic mutations, were used. The DNA lesions produced stimulate mitotic recombination and homozygotization of auxotrophic recessive mutations. Conidial exposure to a saturated atmosphere of benzene fumes for 20 s was enough to increase the mitotic recombination frequencies significantly. Genetic analyses of treated diploids evidenced alterations related to mitotic recombination frequencies, gene expression, and allelic segregation rates. Altogether they reflect the potential of benzene to induce alterations in the fungal DNA, and albeit indirectly, they also respond for the genotoxic/carcinogenic harmful side effects widely connected to benzene. This is the first description of a sensitive, rapid and inexpensive test able to detect the submutagenic dose effects of volatile environmental compounds. In addition, despite concentrating on benzene the same test can be applied to many other pollutants, volatile or not. Additionally, the test can also be used to detect the antigenotoxic properties of foods and drugs.

Salmonella typhimurium plasmids simultaneously coding for tetratcycline resistance, colicin production and pathogenicity

Duas linhagens selvagens de Salmonella typhimurium abrigando dois plasmídios de 100 e 90 kb foram isoladas de água-esgoto e material clínico. A partir de experimentos de conjugaçäo, cura, análise do conteúdo plasmidial através de eletroforese em gel de agarose e bioensaio com camundongos CFW observou-se que o plasmídio de 100 kb codifica simultaneamente resistência a 64µ/mL de tetraciclina, produçäo de colicina e patogenicidade, enquanto que o plasmídio de 90kb pode ser considerado como crítico, em ambas linhagens, nas condiçöes experimentais dessa pesquisa. O processo de cura dessas linhagens com SDS atingiu apenas o plasmídio de peso molecular mais elevado, quando as linhagens bacterianas perderam simultaneamente, as 3 características. Ao realizar os ensaios de conjugaçäo com E.coli K12 e S.typhimurium, as transconjugantes receberam ambos ou apenas o plasmídio de 100 Kb e, associado a este, as propriedades de resistência à tertraciclina, produçäo de colicina e patogenicidade. É a primeira vez que se descrevem essas 3 propriedades codificadas simultaneamente pelo mesmo plasmídio em S.typhimurium