DNA damage in marine rock oyster (Saccostrea Cucullata) exposed to environmentally available PAHs and heavy metals along the Arabian Sea coast.

Molecular biomarkers are used world wide for quick assessment of the immediate effect of environmental pollution on marine ecosystems. Recently, we evaluated oxidative stress responses of marine rock oyster, Saccostrea cucullata impacted due to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) accumulated in their tissues at a few sampling sites along the coast of Goa around the region of the Arabian sea coast, India (Sarkar et al., 2017). Using a combination of partial alkaline unwinding and comet assays, we now report a comprehensive study on the impairment of DNA integrity (DI) in S. cucullata due to exposure to environmentally available PAHs and also heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cu, Fe and Mn) along the Arabian Sea coast, Goa, India exclusively around the entire coast of Goa. First, we determined significant correlation between DI in S. cucullata and the extent of exposure to and bioaccumulation of different PAH compounds including 2-3 aromatic ring PAHs (R2, 0.95), 4-6 aromatic ring PAHs (R2, 0.85), oxygenated-PAHs (oxy-PAHs, R2, 0.84) and total PAHs (t-PAHs, R2, 0.98). Second, we observed dose-dependent decrease in DI in S. cucullata with increasing concentrations of different PAH components in oyster tissues. We substantiated our field observations with appropriate laboratory controls using benzo[a]pyrene (BaP). Third, we performed stepwise multiple regression analyses of different water quality parameters including pH, salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), nitrite (NO2), nitrate (NO3), phosphate (PO4), turbidity and also t-PAH-biota, t-PAH-water with DI as the dependent variable. Among all these parameters, only four parameters such as t-PAH-biota in combination with DO, BOD and NO2 showed significant correlation (R¯2 = 0.95) with loss in DI in S. cucullata. Based on these results, we created a map indicating the percentage of DNA damage in S. cucullata exposed to PAHs and heavy metals at each sampling location along the west coast of India around Goa, India.

Evaluation of genotoxic responses of Chaetoceros tenuissimus and Skeletonema costatum to water accommodated fraction of petroleum hydrocarbons as biomarker of exposure.

Genotoxic responses towards chronic exposure of Chaetoceros tenuissimus and Skeletonema costatum to water accommodated fraction of petroleum hydrocarbons (WAF-P) were evaluated as biomarkers of petroleum hydrocarbons pollution. The DNA damage caused by water accommodated fraction of petroleum hydrocarbons was assessed in terms of the DNA integrity measured by alkaline unwinding assay. The comparative study of the growth pattern of C. tenuissimus with respect to DNA integrity and the DNA strand breaks in different concentrations of WAF-P showed sufficient tolerance. However, its toxicity increased proportionately with exposure to elevated levels of WAF-P. Although DNA damage in S. costatum was similar to C. tenuissimus, its tolerance level to WAF-P was at least 5 times lower than that of C. tenuissimus indicating its high sensitivity to petroleum hydrocarbons. Active growth was exhibited by C. tenuissimus between 10 and 20% WAF-P (ranging from 0.59 to 1.18mg/L petroleum hydrocarbons) which can be related to the polluted regions only, suggesting the tolerant nature of this organism. Considering the degree of sensitivity to petroleum products and good growth under laboratory conditions, these two diatoms could be recommended as model species for evaluating ecogenotoxic effects of wide range of petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants using alkaline unwinding assays.