State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Disease and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, People's Republic of China.
College of Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, People's Republic of China.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2022 Jun 15;238:113596. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113596. Epub 2022 May 5.
Quizalofop-P-ethyl (QpE), a highly efficient selective herbicide, has good control effect on annual and perennial weeds. However, its excessive use will pose a threat to the ecological environment. QpE has been proven harmful to aquatic organisms, but there is little evidence on the adverse effects of QpE in the early life of aquatic organisms. In this work, zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos were treated with 0.10, 0.20, 0.30, 0.40, and 0.50 mg/L of QpE for 120 h. The findings revealed that the LC value of QpE to zebrafish embryos was 0.23 mg/L at 96 hpf. QpE exposure significantly increased the mortality rate, decreased the hatching rate and caused morphological defects during zebrafish embryonic development, with a concentration dependent manner. QpE also caused severe morphological changes in the cardiovascular system, as well as resulted in a dysfunction in cardiovascular performance. Meanwhile, both histopathological examination and neutrophil observations showed inflammatory response occurred in the heart. Furthermore, several genes associated with heart development and inflammation were significantly altered following QpE exposure. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis proved that there was a connection between the changed heart development-relevant and inflammation-related genes. Taken together, our findings suggest that QpE causes cardiotoxicity in zebrafish embryos by altering the expression of genes in the regulatory network of cardiac development, which might be aggravated by inflammatory reactions, thereby affecting embryo development. These findings generated here are useful for in-depth assessment of the effects of QpE on early development of aquatic organisms and providing theoretical foundation for risk management measures.
精喹禾灵（QpE）是一种高效选择性除草剂，对一年生和多年生杂草有良好的控制效果。然而，其过量使用会对生态环境造成威胁。QpE 已被证明对水生生物有害，但关于 QpE 在水生生物早期生活中的不良影响的证据很少。在这项工作中，用 0.10、0.20、0.30、0.40 和 0.50 mg/L 的 QpE 处理斑马鱼（Danio rerio）胚胎 120 h。结果表明，QpE 对斑马鱼胚胎的 96 hpf 时的 LC 值为 0.23 mg/L。QpE 暴露显著增加了死亡率，降低了孵化率，并导致斑马鱼胚胎发育过程中的形态缺陷，呈浓度依赖性。QpE 还导致心血管系统严重形态变化，并导致心血管功能障碍。同时，组织病理学检查和中性粒细胞观察均显示心脏发生炎症反应。此外，几种与心脏发育和炎症相关的基因在 QpE 暴露后也发生了显著改变。蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用（PPI）网络分析证明，心脏发育相关和炎症相关基因的变化之间存在联系。总之，我们的研究结果表明，QpE 通过改变心脏发育调控网络中基因的表达，导致斑马鱼胚胎产生心脏毒性，炎症反应可能使其恶化，从而影响胚胎发育。这些研究结果为深入评估 QpE 对水生生物早期发育的影响以及为风险管理措施提供理论基础具有重要意义。
