Hermaphroditic, demasculinized frogs after exposure to the herbicide atrazine at low ecologically relevant doses

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America - Tập 99 Số 8 - Trang 5476-5480 - 2002
Tyrone B. Hayes1, Atif Collins1, Melissa Lee1, M. A. Mendoza1, Nigel Noriega1, Ansley Stuart1, Aaron Vonk1
1Laboratory for Integrative Studies in Amphibian Biology, Group in Endocrinology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3140

Tóm tắt

Atrazine is the most commonly used herbicide in the U.S. and probably the world. It can be present at several parts per million in agricultural runoff and can reach 40 parts per billion (ppb) in precipitation. We examined the effects of atrazine on sexual development in African clawed frogs ( Xenopus laevis ). Larvae were exposed to atrazine (0.01–200 ppb) by immersion throughout larval development, and we examined gonadal histology and laryngeal size at metamorphosis. Atrazine (≥0.1 ppb) induced hermaphroditism and demasculinized the larynges of exposed males (≥1.0 ppb). In addition, we examined plasma testosterone levels in sexually mature males. Male X. laevis suffered a 10-fold decrease in testosterone levels when exposed to 25 ppb atrazine. We hypothesize that atrazine induces aromatase and promotes the conversion of testosterone to estrogen. This disruption in steroidogenesis likely explains the demasculinization of the male larynx and the production of hermaphrodites. The effective levels reported in the current study are realistic exposures that suggest that other amphibian species exposed to atrazine in the wild could be at risk of impaired sexual development. This widespread compound and other environmental endocrine disruptors may be a factor in global amphibian declines.

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Tập 99 Số 8

5476-5480

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