Assessment of water pollution in the Brazilian Pampa biome by means of stress biomarkers in tadpoles of the leaf frog Phyllomedusa iheringii (Anura: Hylidae)

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1 Laboratório de Estudos em Biodiversidade Pampeana (LEBIP, Universidade Federal do Pampa, Campus São Gabriel, São Gabriel, RS, Brazil
2 Centro Interdisciplinar de Pesquisas em Biotecnologia (CIPBIOTEC), Universidade Federal do Pampa, Campus São Gabriel, São Gabriel, RS, Brazil
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.776v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Biochemistry, Ecology, Environmental Sciences, Toxicology
Keywords
aquatic contamination, anuran larvae, biomarkers, oxidative stress, cholinesterase
Copyright
© 2015 Santos et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Santos TG, Melo R, Costa e Silva D, Nunes M, Franco JFJ. 2015. Assessment of water pollution in the Brazilian Pampa biome by means of stress biomarkers in tadpoles of the leaf frog Phyllomedusa iheringii (Anura: Hylidae) PeerJ PrePrints 3:e776v1

Abstract

The Brazilian Pampa biome is currently under constant threat due to increase of agriculture and improper management of urban effluents. Studies with focus on the assessment of impacts caused by human activities in this biome are scarce. In the present study we measured stress-related biomarkers in the muscle tissue of tadpoles of the leaf frog Phyllomedusa iheringii as a tool for the assessment of potential aquatic contamination in selected ponds (S1 and S2) nearby agricultural areas in comparison to a reference site. A significant decrease in acetylcholinesterase activity was observed in S2 when compared to S1 and reference. The levels of total-hydroperoxides were increased in S2 site. In parallel, increased activity of the antioxidant enzymes catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione S-transferase were observed in S2 when compared to S1 and reference. Based on the results, we drawn attention to the harmful effects caused by indiscriminate use of pesticides on the Pampa biome borders. Our study also validates Phyllomedusa iheringii as a valuable organism for field-based ecotoxicological studies. M

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This is a submission to PeerJ for review.

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