Effect of herbicide acetochlor on cytochrome P450 monooxygenases and GST of earthworms Eisenia fetida.

To assess the sublethal toxicity of the herbicide acetochlor to earthworms and to find out biomarkers possible inducted under acetochlor exposure, Eisenia fetida was exposed to artificial soils supplemented with different concentrations of acetochlor(5, 10, 20, 40 and 80 mg/kg soil). Effects of the acetochlor on cytochrome P450 monooxygenases p-nitroanisole O-demethylase (ODM), aldrin epoxidase (AE) and glutathione-S-transferases (GSTs) activities were determined. The results revealed cytochrome P450 monooxygenases were elevated with increasing concentrations of acetochlor, and the AE activity increased significantly compared with control at the concentration of 80 mg/kg (P < 0.05). However, ODM activity from E. fetida was not induced significantly by acetochlor at all treatments (P > 0.05). Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacryamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed that one protein band was visualized and no evident differences were found in protein profiles between treatments and control. The GST activity increased significantly with longer duration(P < 0.05) and increasing concentrations of acetochlor exposure (P < 0.05). This study showed that the monooxygenases and GSTs activities in E. fetida could be induced by acetochlor, and thus, the AE and GST could be used in sublethal assays for soil contamination surveys and GST could be used as biomarkers ofacetochlor exposure in E. fetida.