Meeting Abstract
Atrazine (ATR) is an herbicide commonly applied in agricultural regions in the Midwestern United States. Excess ATR can enter nearby aquatic environments through run-off and seepage, causing ATR concentrations to increase and placing non-target aquatic organisms, like crayfish, at risk of ATR exposure. It has been shown that acute exposure to 80 ppb (μg/L) ATR can cause chemosensory deficits in crayfish. Knowing that ATR causes impairments on olfactory-mediated behaviors, our aim for this study was to determine the effects of ATR in olfactory sensory neurons, located in the lateral antennules of crayfish. We exposed crayfish to environmentally relevant concentrations of ATR (0, 10, 40, 80, 100 and 300 ppb) for 10 days. Following exposures, the distal portion of the lateral antennule was cryosectioned, and a TdT mediated dUTP nick-end labelling (TUNEL) assay was done in order to determine if cells in the lateral antennules had DNA damage. We found a significant increase of TUNEL-positive cells as atrazine increased above 10 ppb. The data that we obtained showed that DNA damage is caused in the cells of lateral antennules, including olfactory sensory neurons, which ultimately compromises the chemosensory abilities of crayfish. This is concerning as crayfish rely heavily on chemosensory abilities for many aspects of their lives.
