Integration of Genotoxic Biomarkers in Environmental Biomonitoring Analysis Using a Multi-Biomarker Approach in Three-Spined Stickleback ( Gasterosteus aculeatus Linnaeus, 1758)

• Published in: Toxics (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 3; p. 101
• Main Authors: Cant, Amélie, Bonnard, Marc, Porcher, Jean-Marc, Prygiel, Jean, Catteau, Audrey, Delahaut, Laurence, Palluel, Olivier, Turiès, Cyril, Geffard, Alain, Bado-Nilles, Anne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 22-02-2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Agricultural management; Biomarkers; Biomonitoring; Clustering; Contaminants; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA damage; Ecotoxicology; Environmental Engineering; Environmental Sciences; Erythrocytes; Fish; Flow cytometry; Gasterosteus aculeatus; Genotoxicity; Integration; Life Sciences; Multivariate analysis; Necrosis; Parameters; Physiological effects; Pollutants; three-spined stickleback; Toxicology; Water management; Water quality; France; United States > US; genotoxicity; biomonitoring; three-spined stickleback; biomarkers
• ISSN: 2305-6304; 2305-6304
• DOI: 10.3390/toxics10030101

Water is impacted by a variety of increasing pressures, such as contaminants, including genotoxic pollutants. The proposed multi-biomarker approach at a sub-individual level gives a complementary indicator to the chemical and ecological parameters of the Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC). By integrating biomarkers of genotoxicity and erythrocyte necrosis in the sentinel fish species the three-spined stickleback (
) through active biomonitoring of six stations of the Artois-Picardie watershed, north France, our work aimed to improve the already existing biomarker approach. Even if fish in all stations had high levels of DNA strand breaks, the multivariate analysis (PCA), followed by hierarchical agglomerative clustering (HAC), improved discrimination among stations by detecting an increase of nuclear DNA content variation (
,
,
and
) and erythrocyte necrosis (
,
). The present work highlighted that the integration of these biomarkers of genotoxicity in a multi-biomarker approach is appropriate to expand physiological parameters which allow the targeting of new potential effects of contaminants.