PARENT SESSION
PM14 - Role of Biomarkers/Bioindicators in Ecological Risk Assessment
Monday, 18 November 2002
8:00 AM to 6:30 PM
Exhibit Hall

(P335) Population Genetic Structure in Redbreast Sunfish from a Pulp Mill Contaminated River.

Theodorakis, Chris^*,1, Lee, K¹, Adams, S¹, ¹ Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA

ABSTRACT- Redbreast sunfish (Lepomis auritus) were collected from several sites along the Pigeon River, NC, as well as from several reference sites, in order to determine effects of pulp mill effluent on population genetic structure. Previous studies have found that this effluent had effects on molecular, biochemical, and physiological endpoints, as well as population structure, in these fish. The population genetic structure was determined using the RAPD (Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA) technique. It was found that the level of genetic diversity and distribution of RAPD markers in the Pigeon River populations differed from that in the reference populations. Also, the genetic distance between Pigeon River and reference populations was dependant on the proximity of the Pigeon River population to the effluent - i.e., the population genetic structure of fish populations furthest from the effluent were more similar to the reference populations than were the populations closest to the effluent. These data suggest that there was a decreasing effect on population genetic structure with increasing distance from the paper mill effluent, and this trend was similar to that found for biomarker responses. In addition, the genetic distance between populations in the main channel and populations in the tributaries was less in the Pigeon River basin than in the reference streams. This suggests that the Pigeon River may be an ecological sink and the reproductive stock for this river may originate primarily from its non-contaminated tributaries.

Key words: pulp mill effluent