E. Willingham, Embryonic exposure to low-dose pesticides: Effects on growth rate in the hatchling red-eared slider turtle, J TOX E H A, 64(3), 2001, pp. 257-272
Citations number
51
Categorie Soggetti
Environment/Ecology,"Pharmacology & Toxicology
Journal title
JOURNAL OF TOXICOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH-PART A
In the red-eared slider turtle, pesticides can alter expected sex outcomes,
a major step in the inferred pathway of sex determination, and hatchling s
teroid physiology. Changes such as these can profoundly affect an organism'
s fitness. Other potential markers for effects on fitness include hatchling
mass, hatchling use of maternal stores (residual yolk), and especially ear
ly hatchling growth rates. In the current study, red-eared slider turtles w
ere exposed during embryogenesis to one of three compounds-chlordane, trans
-Non-achlor, or p,p-DDE-all of which affect sex determination in this speci
es. Turtles were weighed at hatching, after a 28-d fasting period, and afte
r 14 d of ad libitum feeding. All three compounds had some population-wide
effects on changes in mass from time point to time point when compared to c
ontrols, From hatching to the end of the 28-d fast, turtles exposed in the
egg to the mid-range doses of trans-Nonachlor and of p,p'-DDE lost mass and
underwent a change in mass significantly different from controls. Addition
ally, turtles exposed to the two higher closes of trans-Nonachlor and the m
id-range dose of chlordane grew significantly more than controls after 14 d
of ad libitum feeding. These results point to a role for pesticides in end
ocrine disruption that extends beyond sex determination and sex development
.