engleski

Impact of polystyrene and polymethylmethacrylate microplastics on sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus embryogenesis

Microplastics in the marine environment has become an important issue in contemporary ecotoxicology due to their potential to cause harm to biota. There is still relatively little data available on the roles polymer microparticle size and chemical identity play in causing deleterious effects in a range of aquatic organisms. Thus, the present study was focused towards determining if microplastics could negatively impact on early embryo development in the sea urchin species Paracentrotus lividus. Urchin sperm or zygotes were exposed to virgin polymethylmethacrylate and polystyrene microparticles in the size range 1-230 μm diameter and at concentrations of 0.1 to 10 mg/L. The zygotes brought in contact with the microplastics only after fertilisation did not display a significant increase of developmental defects after 72 h. In contrast to embryo exposures, exposure of P. lividus sperm to the microplastics for 1 h resulted in modest, yet significant, effects. The spermiotoxicity test indicated a decreased fertilisation rate, and increase of transmissible damage to offspring after 72 h. Plutei larvae were noted to have ingested 10 μm polymethylmethacrylate microparticles although ingestion of polystyrene microparticles was not observed. Such ingestion may play a role in polymethylmethacrylate microparticles causing greater toxicity than the corresponding polystyrene microparticles as noted in the present work. Ultimately, the relatively mild effects of these polymer microparticles on embryogenesis in P. lividus indicate that species sensitivity is an important factor to consider in view of the greater toxicity reported for similar microplastics on embryonal development in the sea urchin Sphaerechinus granularis.

embryo ; spermiotoxicity ; offspring quality ; transmissible damage ; developmental anomaly

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