Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1016/j.watres.2018.11.039
Document accepted manuscript
Title (Primary) Integrated zebrafish-based tests as an investigation strategy for water quality assessment
Author Shao, Y.; Xiao, H.; Di Paolo, C.; Deutschmann, B.; Brack, W.; Hollert, H.; Seiler, T.B.
Source Titel Water Research
Year 2019
Department WANA; ZELLTOX
Volume 150
Page From 252
Page To 260
Language englisch
Keywords Tiered bioassays; Zebrafish; Large throughput screening; Toxicity-based mixture elucidation
Abstract Water pollution risks to human health and the environment are emerging as serious concerns in the European Union and worldwide. With the aim to achieve good ecological and chemical status of all European water bodies, the “European Water Framework Directive” (WFD) was enacted. With the framework, bioanalytical techniques have been recognized as an important aspect. However, there are limitations to the application of bioassays directly for water quality assessment. Such approaches often fail to identify pollutants of concern, since the defined priority and monitored pollutants often fail to explain the observed toxicity. In this study, we integrated an effect-based risk assessment with a zebrafish-based investigation strategy to evaluate water sample extracts and fractions collected from the Danube. Four tiered bioassays were implemented, namely RNA-level gene expression assay, protein-level ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) assay, cell-level micronucleus assay and organism-level fish embryo test (FET). The results show that teratogenicity and lethality during embryonic development might be induced by molecular or cellular damages mediated by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) -mediated activity, estrogenic activity and genotoxic activity. With the combination of high-throughput fractionation, this effect-based strategy elucidated the major responsible mixtures of each specific toxic response. In particularly, the most toxic mixture in faction F4, covering a log Kow range from 2.83 to 3.42, was composed by 12 chemicals, which were then evaluated as a designed mixture. Our study applied tiered bioassays with zebrafish to avoid interspecies differences and highlights effect-based approaches to address toxic mixtures in water samples. This strategy can be applied for large throughput screenings to support the main toxic compounds identification in water quality assessment.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=21597
Shao, Y., Xiao, H., Di Paolo, C., Deutschmann, B., Brack, W., Hollert, H., Seiler, T.B. (2019):
Integrated zebrafish-based tests as an investigation strategy for water quality assessment
Water Res. 150 , 252 - 260 10.1016/j.watres.2018.11.039