Effect of nutritive status on Mytilus galloprovincialis pollution biomarkers: Implications for large-scale monitoring programs.
Biomarkers have been extensively used in monitoring programs with the aim of assessing the biological effects of pollutants on marine organisms and determining environmental status. Data obtained from these programs are sometimes difficult to interpret due to the large amount of natural variables affecting biological processes, which could act as confounding factors on biomarker responses. The main aim of this work was to identify the effect of one of these variables, the food availability, and consequently, the mussel nutritive status, on biomarker responses. For that purpose, mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) were conditioned to three different food rations for 2 months in order to create three mussel nutritive statuses and afterwards, each status was exposed to three nominal concentrations of fluoranthene (FLU) for 3 weeks. A battery of biomarkers was considered in this study to cover a wide range of organism responses, both physiological (scope for growth - SFG) and biochemical (superoxide dismutase - SOD, catalase - CAT, glutathione reductase - GR, glutathione peroxidase - GPx, glutathione-S-transferase - GST and phenoloxidase - PO activities, and lipid membrane peroxidation - LPO). The results obtained, evidenced that most of the studied biomarkers (SFG, SOD, CAT, GPx, and PO) were strongly affected by mussel nutritive status, showing higher values at lower status, whereas the effect of toxicant was not always evident, masked by the nutritive status effect. This paper demonstrates that toxicants are not the only source of variability modulating pollution biomarkers, and confirms nutritive status as a major factor altering biochemical and physiological biomarkers.
Instituto Español de Oceanografía, IEO, Centro Oceanográfico de Murcia, Varadero 1, E-30740 San Pedro del Pinatar, Murcia, Spain.
Carmen
C
González-Fernández
Instituto Español de Oceanografía, IEO, Centro Oceanográfico de Murcia, Varadero 1, E-30740 San Pedro del Pinatar, Murcia, Spain. Electronic address: marina.albentosa@mu.ieo.es.
Marina
M
Albentosa
Instituto Español de Oceanografía, IEO, Centro Oceanográfico de Murcia, Varadero 1, E-30740 San Pedro del Pinatar, Murcia, Spain.
Juan A
JA
Campillo
Instituto Español de Oceanografía, IEO, Centro Oceanográfico de Vigo, Subida a Radio Faro 50, E-36390 Vigo, Spain.
Lucía
L
Viñas
Área de Toxicología, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, E-30100 Murcia, Spain.
Diego
D
Romero
Instituto Español de Oceanografía, IEO, Centro Oceanográfico de Vigo, Subida a Radio Faro 50, E-36390 Vigo, Spain.
Angeles
A
Franco
Instituto Español de Oceanografía, IEO, Centro Oceanográfico de Vigo, Subida a Radio Faro 50, E-36390 Vigo, Spain.
Juan
J
Bellas
D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000592:standards*; D049878:Mytilus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology / Q000502:physiology*; D010088:Oxidoreductases / Q000378:metabolism; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000633:toxicity
D015415:Biomarkers; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D010088:Oxidoreductases
Biomarkers; Biomonitoring; Confounding factors; Fluoranthene; Mussels; Nutritive status