Jm. Everaarts et A. Sarkar, DNA-DAMAGE AS A BIOMARKER OF MARINE POLLUTION - STRAND BREAKS IN SEASTARS (ASTERIAS-RUBENS) FROM THE NORTH-SEA, Water science and technology, 34(7-8), 1996, pp. 157-162
Citations number
29
Categorie Soggetti
Water Resources","Environmental Sciences","Engineering, Civil
The DNA damage in seastars (Asterias rubens) was studied by measuring
the level of integrity of DNA isolated from pyloric caeca of the organ
isms in order to assess the state of pollution of the North Sea. The e
ffect of various genotoxic chemicals on the integrity of DNA was deter
mined by the level of double strandedness with respect to total DNA fo
llowing time-dependent partial alkaline unwinding assay. On the basis
of the level of integrity of DNA from seastars the study area was dist
inguished into three clusters: Cluster-I, the highly polluted area (co
astal and estuarine zones) with low integrity of DNA (27-43% integrity
), Cluster-II, the moderately polluted area (offshore region) with med
ium integrity of DNA (49-64% integrity) and Cluster-III, less polluted
area (near Dogger bank region) with high integrity of DNA (70-87% int
egrity). Copyright (C) 1996 IAWQ.