Detection of genotoxicity in feral flounder (Platichthys flesus) from Masan Bay and Haegeumgang, South Korea

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the impact of environmental contamination using flounder (Platichthys flesus) in Masan Bay and Haegeumgang, South Korea.Flounders were collected from two polluted sites (Dot Island and Dukdong) and a clean site (Dogang-po) in spring and autumn, respectively. To compare theenvironmental contamination of those sites, we measured DNA strand breaks in blood cells isolated from the flounders collected at three sites using comet assay.According to the results of comet assay, the levels of DNA strand breaks in two polluted sites were significantly higher than that of clean site and the mean valuesof DNA damage in female fishes from all sites were higher than those of male fishes. The difference of DNA damage levels between spring and autumn was notdetected. In addition to comet assay analysis, we cloned partial fragments of glutathione S-transferase (GST), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and metallothionein(MT) as representative stress-responsive genes from P. flesus. The hepatic transcriptional changes of GST, SOD, and MT were investigated through the northernblot analysis.