First genotoxicity assessment of marine environment in Qatar using the local Pearl oyster Pinctada radiata

Abstract

The Arabian Gulf countries’ marine environment has been subjected to increasing industrial development and anthropogenic pressure, leading to the growing introduction of contaminants into the marine environment, with a large percentage of those consisting of potentially genotoxic substances. In this study, we performed the first integrated assessment of some of the genotoxic contaminants present in the Qatari marine environment and their biological effect, by the evaluation of the aneuploidy levels on the native pearl oyster Pinctada radiata. The aneuploidy levels varied significantly between sampling sites but not between sampling seasons. However, an important spatial and temporal variability of the bioaccumulated contaminants in the P. radiata tissues was observed, leading us to suggest that the high levels of aneuploidy found in the two harbor sampling sites could be a consequence of a local chronical contamination and not a direct response to the temporal fluctuations of the bioavailable contaminants to P. radiata.