An integrative study of the effects of exposure to arsenic in "Corbicula fluminea" (Müller 1744)

Mussels are regularly used as bio-indicators of environmental conditions. Besides that many studies have addressed the link between mussels and different parameters used for environmental control, such as the mussles' content in metals, PCB, PAHs and other compounds, few studies have focused in the integrative approaches developed on Corbicula Fluminea under environmental controlled conditions. Those studies should joint methodologies such as histochemistry, pathology, proteomics and metallomics, to unravel the effects of toxic agents in the living organism. Therefore the main goal of this work is to assess the biological responses of C. fluminea. When it is exposed to different concentrations of As in the water, with the final objective to address the possibility to use C. fluminea as a potential bio-indicator of As contamination in drinking waters