New method to determine the environmental impact of substances

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Researchers from the Senckenberg Center for Biodiversity and Climate Research and the LOEWE Center have developed a new method with which they hope to increase the reliability of tests that measure the environmental impact of chemicals on the environment, and for this purpose, they have relied on mosquitoes.

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Researchers propose to test the mutagenicity of chemicals in mosquitoes. Reference image taken from pixabay.com.

The method developed measures whether the substances evaluated can cause hereditary damage in the genome of multicellular organisms, such as insects, using for testing mosquitoes of the species Chironimus riparius. To do this, scientists breed several generations of insects and using bioinformatic methods they analyze the complete genome of the insects. This group of scientists hopes that in the future the method will become a standard test, as they made known in the magazine "Environmental Pollution".

The researchers worked with chironomid mosquitoes of the species Chironomus riparius to model multicellular organisms, as they consider that the existing mutagenicity assays for metazoans lack direct observation of increased germline mutation rates after exposure to anthropogenic substances, and are therefore inefficient.

For example, cadmium (Cd) is a heavy metal described as mutagenic in mammalian cells and is listed as a carcinogenic substance. But the mechanism of cadmium mutagenesis is not yet clear. Therefore, in the investigation a method combining short-term mutation accumulation (MA) lines with subsequent sequencing of the whole genome and a data analysis line dedicated to investigate if chronic exposure to Cd in Chironomus riparius can alter the speed at which mutations appear.

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Analysis of cadmium exposure over several generations. Source: Image designed by @emiliomoron using public domain images.

After exposure to a low but relevant cadmium concentration in the environment for several generations, the results showed that Cd exposure did not affect the basal germline mutation rate or the mutational spectrum in this mosquito, so it is argued that exposed organisms could experience a number of other toxic effects before any mutagenic effect occurs. What is important about the study, is that this is contrary to what has been assumed previously on the basis of current environmental impact tests, according to the researchers, the concentration of cadmium used is considered mutagenic in multicellular organisms.


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8 comments
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Greetings friend @emiliomoron.

As usual you bring us an extraordinary content related to a new and important method for the determination of the environmental impact of chemical substances.
An important method because it will always be important to be able to measure this impact as efficiently as possible since everyone will benefit.

You share with us essential aspects that allow us the consolidation of the raised topic.
Truly an extraordinary approach on the shared topic, thanks for continuing to nourish us with such important contents. Success for you and your family.

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Greetings friend @rbalzan79, thank you very much for your appreciation. Really something important since it is necessary to obtain as much information as possible about the chemicals that will be introduced into the environment.

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(Edited)

Greetings friend @emiliomoron

What is important about the study, is that this is contrary to what has been assumed previously on the basis of current environmental impact tests, according to the researchers, the concentration of cadmium used is considered mutagenic in multicellular organisms.

Internally, it is stated that low concentrations do not induce carcinogenic reactions or other pathologies, however, their accumulation in the body in addition to the toxic effect that triggers severe stomach pain and vomiting, over the years ends up creating the same adverse damage of carcinogenic type.

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That's how friend @lupafilotaxy is, that's why it is necessary to have methods that allow to measure how it influences complex organisms.

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Good article, these studies can shed light on how the ecosystem is affected by the use of chemicals in Venezuela. Several chemicals are being used for gold extraction and this is contaminating the Orinoco River

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Many are the substances that are used to extract metals in mining operations that cause great environmental damage, are necessary in addition to methods such as this the willingness to implement them.

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