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Metabolomic Profiling to Inform Use of Surrogate Species in Ecological Risk Assessments
Citation:
Seim, R., D. Glinski, J. Awkerman, B. Hemmer, P. Harris, Sandy Raimondo, AND Matt Henderson. Metabolomic Profiling to Inform Use of Surrogate Species in Ecological Risk Assessments. 2020 SOT Virtual Meeting, Anaheim, CA, March 15 - 19, 2020.
Impact/Purpose:
Poster presented at the 2020 SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo
Description:
The U.S. EPA routinely uses avian and fish toxicity data to set protective standards for amphibians in ecological risk assessments. However, this approach does not always adequately represent aquatic-dwelling and terrestrial-phase amphibian exposure data. While there are multiple amphibian families within the U.S. EPA’s ECOTOX database, a lack of concordance of standardized tests used to collect amphibian data limits the ability to estimate the ecological effects of pesticides in these species and affirm the use of surrogate species data. For instance, it is widely accepted that early life stage tests for fish are typically sensitive enough to protect larval amphibians, but metamorphosis from tadpole to a terrestrial-phase adult relies on endocrine cues that are less prevalent in fish. These differences suggest that more robust approaches are needed in order to adequately elucidate the impacts of pesticide exposure in amphibians across critical life stages. Therefore, in the current study, the perturbations in the metabolomic response of larval zebrafish (Danio rerio), a surrogate species frequently used in ecotoxicological studies, are compared to those of African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) and southern toad (Anaxyrus terrestris) tadpoles following exposure to high-use pesticides. These species were exposed to pesticides including, but not limited to, atrazine, bifenthrin, chlorothalonil, metolachlor, tebuconazole, or trifluralin over a targeted range spanning reported values beneath those eliciting acute toxicity. For metabolomic profiling, liver tissues or whole organisms were liquid-liquid extracted, derivatized and analyzed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Following spectral alignment and preprocessing, multivariate analysis was utilized to identify dose-dependent changes in the metabolome for each species and each pesticide. Numerous biochemical pathways, such as fatty acid synthesis, amino acid metabolism and the citric acid cycle are frequently impacted by pesticide exposure. Ultimately, data gathered will help inform the applicability of the use of surrogate species in establishing the risk pesticide exposure poses to amphibians and potentially other non-target species.
URLs/Downloads:
https://files.abstractsonline.com/CTRL/7B/C/D8A/F30/A67/4F5/D95/734/F0A/3F2/673/EF/a3564_1.pdf