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A 3-D QSAR-BASED IDENTIFICATION ALGORITHM FOR POTENTIAL ESTROGEN RECEPTOR LIGANDS
Citation:
Bradbury, S P., P. K. Schmieder, G T. Ankley, O. G. Mekenyan, AND V. Kamenska. A 3-D QSAR-BASED IDENTIFICATION ALGORITHM FOR POTENTIAL ESTROGEN RECEPTOR LIGANDS. Presented at 9th International Workshop on Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships in Environmental Sciences, Bourgas, Bulgaria, September 16-20, 2000.
Description:
Recent reports concerning the lethal effects of solar ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation on amphibians suggest that this stressor has the potential to impact some amphibian populations. In this study embryos and larvae of three anuran species, Rana pipiens, R. clamitans, and R. septentrionalis, were exposed to full spectrum solar radiation and rlar radiation filtered to eliminate UV-B and UV-A radiation to determine the effects on survival. Ambient levels of solar radiation were found to be lethal to all three species and the lethality was ameliorated by filtration of UV-B radiation alone, demonstrating that UV-B is sufficient to cause mortality. Although several studies have qualitatively demonstrated the lethality of UV-B to early-life stage amphibians, this study demonstrates that the larval life stages of the three species tested are more sensitive than the embryonic stages. This suggests that previous reports, which have not included the larval life stage, may understimate the risk posed to anuran populations by increasing the UV-B exposure. Furthermore, as opposed to most previous work on this topic, this study reports quantitative UV-B dosimetry data, collected in conjunction with the exposures, which can be used to directly assess the impact of environmental changes which increase UV-B exposure of these anurans.