Abstract：
Early life stages are commonly thought to be highly sensitive to environmental contaminants and may offer insight into the future health of a population. Despite the importance of studying early life stages, very few standard protocols for benthic invertebrates commonly used in ecotoxicological assessments measure developmental endpoints. The goal of the present study was to develop and optimize a robust standard protocol for studying embryonic endpoints in freshwater gastropods. The developed method was then used to characterize the sensitivity of four embryonic endpoints (viability, hatching, deformities, and biomass production), in conjunction with juvenile and adult mortality, for the snail Planorbella pilsbryi exposed to three metals (copper [Cu], cadmium [Cd], and nickel [Ni]). Biomass production was typically the most sensitive endpoint but was relatively variable, while embryo hatching was slightly less sensitive but highly consistent for all three metals. However, no single embryonic endpoint was consistently the most sensitive, which demonstrates the importance of assessing a broad range of endpoints and life stages in ecotoxicological risk assessment. Interestingly, the embryonic life stage of P. pilsbryi was considerably less sensitive to Cu exposure compared with juvenile and adult mortality. However, for Cd exposure, embryonic endpoints were the most sensitive, and for Ni exposure, embryonic endpoints were similar in sensitivity to juvenile and adult mortality. The present study has valuable applications in conducting developmental toxicity research with organisms lacking standardized testing protocol as well as future applications in multigenerational and in silico toxicity research. Environ Toxicol Chem 2023;42:1791-1805. © 2023 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.
摘要：
生命早期阶段通常被认为对环境污染物高度敏感，并可能提供对人口未来健康的洞察力。尽管研究生命早期阶段的重要性，生态毒理学评估中常用的底栖无脊椎动物标准协议很少测量发育终点。本研究的目的是开发和优化用于研究淡水腹足类动物胚胎终点的强大标准方案。然后将开发的方法用于表征四个胚胎终点(活力，孵化,畸形,和生物质生产)，连同青少年和成人死亡率，对于暴露于三种金属(铜，Cd,&Ni）。生物质生产通常是最敏感的终点，但相对可变，而胚胎孵化稍不敏感，但对所有三种金属高度一致。然而,没有一个胚胎终点始终是最敏感的,这表明在生态毒理学风险评估中评估广泛终点和生命阶段的重要性.有趣的是,与幼年和成年死亡率相比，pilsbryi的胚胎生命阶段对铜暴露的敏感性大大降低。然而,对于Cd暴露，胚胎终点是最敏感的，对于镍暴露，胚胎终点对青少年和成人死亡率的敏感性相似.这项研究在对缺乏标准化测试方案的生物进行发育毒性研究以及在多代和计算机毒性研究中的未来应用方面具有宝贵的应用价值。
