Abstract:
The agricultural sector is considered to be the backbone of a countries
economy. To increase the crop yield, there is an extensive use of agrochemicals in the
form of insecticides, herbicides, nutrient mixture, fungicides, etc. This is necessarily
involved in controlling the unwanted organisms; however, it leads to toxicity in a
nearby ecosystem. Aquatic habitats being a complexed ecosystem are distressed with
the increasing concentration of agrochemicals, which leads to an alteration in nontarget
species at various trophic levels. Fishes are considered to be the dynamic players
of this ecosystemand are the first one to be acquaintedwith any contaminants present
in it. In this context, the present studywas aimed to find the sublethal effects (1/10th of
the LC50 value) of four different agrochemicals (imidacloprid—insecticide, pyrazosulfuron
ethyl—herbicide, curzate—fungicide and micronutrient mixture) on the stress
physiology of Oreochromis mossambicus. The hormonal titer of cortisol and gene expression of its receptor was carried out to understand the toxicity of diverse agrochemicals.
The results suggested that there was a significant decrease in hormonal
titer of cortisol upon the exposure of curzate and imidacloprid, with a significant
downregulation of glucocorticoid receptor under the exposure of imidacloprid. Thus,
the novel findings suggest that fisheswere found to be devoid of stress response which
may be due to hypothalamus pituitary interrenal exhaustion.
Description:
Cogent Biology (Taylor and Francis), Vol 4(1), May-2018, pp. 1-13
