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(80-66) Evaluation of the Physiological Status of Chamelea gallina using Biomarkers. Mozzone, Sabrina1, Caprì, Flavia2, Pons, Giovanni2, Fabbri, Rita3, Pampanin, Daniela4, Viarengo, Aldo*,2, 1 A.R.P.A. Polo Microinquinanti, Environmental Toxicology Lab, Via Trotti 17, Alessandria, Italy2 DI.S.T.A. University of Eastern Piedmont "Amedeo Avogadro", C.so T. Borsalino 54, Alessandria, Italy3 Interuniversitary Research Center of Chemistry and Biology of Trace Metals, C.so Europa 18, Genova, Italy4 Marine Biology Institute - VE - CNR, Riva Sette Martiri, 1364/A, Venezia, Italy ABSTRACT- The increasing impact of human activities on marine environment has contributed to focus attention on the urgent needs of sensitive tools to define possible damages to marine organisms. New bioindicators are actually under evaluation and the hypothesis to use them to assess marine environmental quality is discussed. Chamelea gallina is a fairly common species in the Mediterranean; it is an infaunal filter feeding organism living in sandy seabeds near the coastline (0-15 m in depth) in the surface layer of sediment which offers shelter and protection. The present study clearly shows the possibility to use this species as sentinel organism and provides a contribution to the comprehension of physiological status of C. gallina. Furthermore, these data may help to clarify if an alteration of the physiological status of the organisms is involved in the irregular mortality of the venus clams - a marine resource of high economical interest - repeatedly occurring during the last ten years in natural fishing beds along the west coast of the Adriatic Sea. Alterations at digestive gland level were evaluated using a battery of recognised biomarkers such as lysosomal membrane stability, ratio lysosomal dimension/cytoplasm, evaluation of DNA damage, ROS production, ATPase activities and neotetrazolic reductase activity. The digestive gland showed morphological alterations in organisms collected in contemned coastal areas; the results demonstrate that clams living in Senigallia were healthy indicating that the ecosystem is relatively unpolluted, while animals sampled in Cesenatico and Tagliata showed a stress syndrome, as judged by alteration of the applied biomarkers. In particular the results of Ca2+ ATPase activity evidenced that in C. gallina this enzymatic activity represent an extremely sensitive biomarker, this is probably due to its cytological localisation in the apical region of plasmamembrane in the digestive gland cells. These data were also confirmed by the morphological study on digestive gland. Key words: chamelea gallina, biomarkers, marine monitoring, sentinel organisms |
