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(87-01) DNA damage as an endpoint for biomonitoring of pollution impact. Rank, Jette*,1, 1 Jette Rank, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark ABSTRACT- Previous studies demonstrated genotoxicity of wastewater from municipalities and industries with outlet to the marine environment in Denmark (Hereditas 121:249-254, 1994). This suggests that the organisms living in the receiving coastal waters are exposed to genotoxic substances, which could cause damage of the DNA. The blue mussel, Mytilus edulis, was used for a biomonitoring study in K Key words: genotoxicity, comet assay, blue mussel, biomonitoring |
ge Bay, a highly polluted marine area south of Copenhagen. The detection of DNA damage was carried out with the use of the comet assay on respectively hemocytes and gill cells.The monitoring took place during the summer 1998, and the whole years 1999 and 2001, where mussels were sampled on shallow waters at five stations placed along the coast line. Samples of sediment were taken only for the year 1999. The sediments were analysed for the heavy metals Cr, Ni, Cd and Hg with the purpose of analysing the correlation between the DNA damage and the concentration of the metals. The DNA damage was expressed in the unit tail moment. A great variation of the tail moments was found for both the sampling sites and for the different dates. The level of DNA damage was remarkable high in the summer 1999 with tail moments in the range 5.48-19.4 for gill cells of mussels sampled in June. This should be compared with tail moments from unpolluted sites with tail moments about 2. No similarity in the pattern of seasonal variation was seen for the years 1999 and 1998, wherefore the variation in DNA damage could be due to a variation of the pollution level. Correlation analysis between the tail moments and the concentrations of the four heavy metals showed that only chromium could be significantly correlated (P<0.05) with the level of DNA damage. The overall conclusion of the study is that it is possible to use DNA damage as an endpoint in biomonitoring studies of pollution impact. However, still it is very difficult, from studies like this, to find the source of genotoxic pollution.