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Assessing behavioral toxicity with Caenorhabditis elegans
Author(s) -
Anderson Gary L.,
Cole Russell D.,
Williams Phillip L.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
environmental toxicology and chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1552-8618
pISSN - 0730-7268
DOI - 10.1897/03-264
Subject(s) - caenorhabditis elegans , toxicity , pesticide , acute toxicity , toxicology , chemistry , chlorpyrifos , neurotoxicity , bioassay , chemical compound , environmental chemistry , biology , ecology , biochemistry , organic chemistry , gene
Behavior, even in simple metazoans, depends upon integrated processesat the subcellular, cellular, and organismal level, and thus is susceptible to disruption by a broad spectrum of chemicals. Locomotor behavior (movement) of the small free‐living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has proven to be useful in assessing toxicity. Recently reported observations suggest that behavioral change (reduced movement) occurs after 4 h of exposure to heavy metals, and that with abbreviated exposure, the concentration‐response relationship for Pb (a known neurotoxic metal) differs from that for Cu. In this study, movement was evaluated after 4‐h exposures for nine compounds from three chemical classes: organic pesticides, organic solvents, and heavy metals. Concentration‐dependent reduction of movement was observed for all test compounds with the exception of mebendazole, for which test concentrations were limited by solubility. Within each chemical class, movement was more sensitive to the neurotoxic compounds than to substances not believed to be neurotoxic, as evidenced by behavioral effective concentration to reduce average worm movement to 50% of the control movement values (e.g., levamisole and chlorpyrifos < mebendazole, ethanol and acetone < dimethylsulfoxide, and Pb and Al < Cu). These observations are discussed as they relate to the use of acute behavioral tests in assessing general chemical toxicity, and the enhanced value of 4‐h testing for the detection of neural toxicants.