Meeting Abstract
Atrazine is an herbicide that is heavily applied in agricultural areas in the Midwestern United States and can run-off and seep into surrounding aquatic habitats. Concentrations of atrazine can reach concentrations of >300 ppb. Previous research in our lab has shown that exposures to 80 ppb atrazine cause lasting deficiencies in the chemoreception of food and mate odors. Due to the fact that atrazine impairs chemosensory responses, the goal of this study was to determine the effect of atrazine on olfactory sensory neurons located in the lateral antennules of crayfish. In this experiment, we used three 15-day exposures (0, 80, and 300 ppb) to atrazine. Post treatment, lateral antennules were fixed, decalcified and cryoprotected. Medial segments were then sectioned on a cryostat. Antennule sections were stained with antibodies against tubulin, a protein found in neurons, and DAPI, a nuclear stain and imaged. Additionally, we used DiO to help determine the number of neurons present after treatment. Our preliminary data suggests that atrazine exposure causes degeneration of olfactory sensory neuron bundles or clusters, leading to impairments in chemosensory abilities.
