title: The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as an integrated toxicological tool to assess water quality and pollution.
abstract: Determination of water quality status in rivers is critical to establish a sustainable water management policy. For this reason, over the last decades it has been recommended to perform integrated water assessments that include water quantities and physicochemical, ecological and toxicological tests. However, sometimes resources are limited and it is not possible to perform large-scale chemical determinations of pollutants or conduct numerous ecotoxicological tests. To overcome this problem we use and measure the growth, as a response parameter, of the soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to assess water quality in rivers. The C. elegans is a ubiquitous organism that has emerged as an important model organism in aquatic and soil toxicology research. The Tunuyán River Basin (Province of Mendoza, Argentina) has been selected as a representative traditional water monitoring system to test the applicability of the C. elegans toxicological bioassay to generate an integrated water quality evaluation. Jointly with the C. elegans toxic assays, physicochemical and bacteriological parameters were determined for each monitoring site. C. elegans bioassays help to identify different water qualities in the river basin. Multivariate statistical analysis (PCA and linear regression models) has allowed us to confirm that traditional water quality studies do not predict potential toxic effects on living organisms. On the contrary, physicochemical and bacteriological analyzes explain <62% of the C. elegans growth response variability, showing that ecotoxicological bioassays are important to obtain a realistic scenario of water quality threats. Our results confirm that the C. elegans bioassay is a sensible and suitable tool to assess toxicity and should be implemented in routine water quality monitoring.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones en Biociencias Agrícolas y Ambientales, CONICET-Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Av. San Martín 4453 C1417DSE, CABA, Argentina; Cátedra de Bioquímica, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Av. San Martín 4453 C1417DSE, CABA, Argentina.
authors.forename: Araceli
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Clavijo
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones en Biociencias Agrícolas y Ambientales, CONICET-Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Av. San Martín 4453 C1417DSE, CABA, Argentina; Cátedra de Bioquímica, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Av. San Martín 4453 C1417DSE, CABA, Argentina.
authors.forename: María Florencia
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Kronberg
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio Experimental de Tecnologías Sustentables, Instituto Nacional del Agua, Av. Ezeiza-Cañuelas, tramo Jorge Newbery Km 1,620 Pcia, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Ariana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rossen
authors.affiliation: Cátedra de Protección Vegetal, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Av. San Martín 4453 C1417DSE, CABA, Argentina.
authors.forename: Aldana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moya
authors.affiliation: Dirección de Servicios Hidrológicos, Instituto Nacional del Agua, Av. Ezeiza-Cañuelas, tramo Jorge Newbery Km 1,620 Pcia, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Calvo
authors.affiliation: Centro Regional Andino, Instituto Nacional del Agua, Belgrano 210 (M5500FIF) Mendoza, Argentina.
authors.forename: Santa Esmeralda
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Salatino
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones en Biociencias Agrícolas y Ambientales, CONICET-Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Av. San Martín 4453 C1417DSE, CABA, Argentina; Cátedra de Bioquímica, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Av. San Martín 4453 C1417DSE, CABA, Argentina.
authors.forename: Eduardo Antonio
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Pagano
authors.affiliation: Centro Regional Andino, Instituto Nacional del Agua, Belgrano 210 (M5500FIF) Mendoza, Argentina; Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias (UNCuyo), Alte. Brown 500, Chacras de Coria, Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina.
authors.forename: José Antonio
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Morábito
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones en Biociencias Agrícolas y Ambientales, CONICET-Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Av. San Martín 4453 C1417DSE, CABA, Argentina; Cátedra de Bioquímica, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Av. San Martín 4453 C1417DSE, CABA, Argentina. Electronic address: emunarriz@agro.uba.ar.
authors.forename: Eliana Rosa
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Munarriz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001118:Argentina; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000187:drug effects*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D060753:Water Quality
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Argentina; Bioassay; Environmental status; Environmental toxicology; Water quality threats