Effects of three pesticides on superoxide dismutase and glutathione-S-transferase activities and reproduction of Daphnia magna

Abstract

Applying pesticides to crops is one of the causes of water pollution by surface runoff, and chlorpyrifos, trifluralin and chlorothalonil are used respectively as insecticide, herbicide and fungicide for crop plants widely. To explore effects of three pesticides on aquatic organisms, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities were determined after 24 h and 48 h exposure of D. magna with ages of 6–24 h to several low concentrations of chlorpyrifos (0.36, 0.72, 1.43, 2.86, 5.72 μg∙L−1), trifluralin (0.17, 0.33, 0.66, 1.33, 2.65 mg∙L−1) and chlorothalonil (0.09, 0.18, 0.36, 0.72, 1.43 mg∙L−1) respectively. Main reproductive parameters including first pregnancy time, first brood time, the number of first brood and total fecundity after 21 d exposures at the same concentrations of pesticides as described above were also measured. The results showed that the activities of GST increased in lower concentrations and decreased in higher concentrations after 24 h exposure to three pesticides, respectively. The activities of SOD showed the same changes after 48 h exposure. With the time prolonged, the activities of GST decreased while the activities of SOD increased. After 21 d exposure, the first pregnancy time and first brood time were delayed, while the number of the first brood and total fecundity per female decreased with increasing concentrations. These results corroborated that GST activity was more sensitive to those pesticides than SOD activity, and there was a significant relationship between total fecundity and pesticides-dose(r>0.94, n=6), GST activity after 48 h exposure and total fecundity after 21 d exposure (r>0.92, n=6).

Keywords

• enzyme activity
• reproductive parameter
• pesticide
• Daphnia magna