Embryonic exposure to low-dose pesticides: Effects on growth rate in the hatchling red-eared slider turtle

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 .