BIOMARKERS OF XENO-OESTROGEN EXPOSURE IN DECAPOD CRUSTACEANS

Many anthropogenic chemicals, most notably xeno-oestrogens, are known to have the potential to disrupt vertebrate endocrine systems. Induction of the female-specific protein vitellogenin (Vtg) in male fish, for example, is a well-known effect of exposure to xeno-oestrogens and serves as a biomarker of such exposure. There have been few comparable studies of putative biomarkers of endocrine disruption in decapods. The current study aimed to establish if reproduction and development of two decapods, the prawn, Palaemon elegans and the crab, Carcinus maenas, were affected following exposure to known oestrogenic chemicals and whether a biomarker approach, analogous to that for vertebrates, could be adopted. The xeno-oestrogen 4-n-nonylphenol (4-NP) was acutely toxic to P. elegans (48h-LC5o, 34.3-96.1 µg Lˉ¹) and C. maenas larvae (48h-LC50, 116-507.3 µg Lˉ¹ ), with P. elegans among the most sensitive species reported. Other than a small, but significant, increase in the mortality of P. elegans larvae exposed to 4-NP at 2 µg Lˉ¹ , neither 4-NP nor the natural oestrogen, 17β-oestradiol (E2) significantly affected growth, development or survival of P. elegans at environmentally realistic concentrations (