scholarly journals Acanthocephalan Worms Mitigate the Harmful Impacts of Heavy Metal Pollution on Their Fish Hosts

Fishes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Reda Hassanine ◽  
Zaki Al-Hasawi

Toxic metal pollutants in aquatic environments and infestationwith intestinal helminths adversely affect the fish health, as well as fish consumers. Acanthocephalan worms in fish intestine have a high potential to absorb and bioaccumulate different heavy metals, especially toxic ones, from the intestine via their tegument with greater efficiency than the fish intestinal wall. Herein, 47 specimens of the fish Siganusrivulatus were trapped in the Red Sea, Egypt, from a chronically polluted bay. All were intoxicatedwith Cd and Pb; 20 (42.5%) were uninfected with any intestinal worm, but the other 27 (57.5%) were infected only by the intestinal acanthocephalan Sclerocollum rubrimaris. The number of individual worms in a fish host (infrapopulation size) ranged from 32 to 236. As a reference group, 22 uncontaminated–uninfected specimens of S. rivulatus were trapped from a small unpolluted bay. Our results revealed that infection with acanthocephalans alleviatesthe harmful effectsof toxic metalson their fish hosts by: (1) lowering the elevated concentrations of both Cd and Pb in fish liver; (2) lowering the elevated levels of liver enzymes (ALT, AST, ALP, and GGT), glucose, triglycerides, and urea in fish blood serum; and (3) raising the declined levels of total protein and albumin in fish blood serum. All of these were dependent on S. rubrimaris infrapopulation size in fish intestine.

2014 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.O. Al-Jahdali ◽  
R.M. El-Said Hassanine ◽  
H. El-S. Touliabah

AbstractThe rhadinorhynchidSclerocollum saudiiAl-Jahdali, 2010 was found in the intestine of its type host,SiganusrivulatusForsskål & Niebuhr, 1775, a siganid fish permanently resident in a lagoon within the mangrove swamps found on the Egyptian coast of the Gulf of Aqaba (between 28°7′N and 28°18′N). Larval forms of this acanthocephalan (acanthors, acanthellae and cystacanths) were only found inMegaluropus agilisHoek, 1889 (Crustacea: Gammaridae), a benthic amphipod abundant on algae and seagrasses in the lagoon. So, this life cycle ofS. saudiiwas elucidated under semi-natural conditions: embryonated eggs ofS. saudiiwere directly ingested by the amphipod and hatched in its intestine; the released acanthor penetrated the intestinal epithelium in 12–18 h to reach the connective tissue serosa, where it remained for about 3 days, then penetrated the intestinal wall and remained attached to its outer surface for 4 days. It then detached and dropped free in the amphipod haemocoel and transformed into an oval acanthella, growing for 16 days to reach the cystacanth stage. The cystacanth at 46 days post-infection was infective to fish (excysted in its intestine as an active juvenile). Male and female juveniles reached maturity 17 and 23 days post-infection. Recently copulated females first appeared 26 days post-infection and all females seemed to be copulated at 28 days post-infection; partially and fully gravid females first appeared 31 and 35 days post-infection. Mature males and fully gravid females started to die off naturally 31 and 43 days post-infection and were totally expelled from the fish intestine by 42 and 52 days post-infection. The cycle was completed in 89 days and is similar to other known palaeacanthocephalan life cycles, but has its own characteristics.


1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (7) ◽  
pp. 73-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hooi-Ling Lee ◽  
Donald DeAngelis ◽  
Hock-Lye Koh

This paper discusses the spatial distribution patterns of the various species of the Unionid mussels as functions of their respective life-cycle characteristics. Computer simulations identify two life-cycle characteristics as major factors governing the abundance of a species, namely the movement range of their fish hosts and the success rate of the parasitic larval glochidia in finding fish hosts. Core mussels species have fish hosts with large movement range to disperse the parasitic larval glochidia to achieve high levels of abundance. Species associated with fish host of limited movement range require high success rate of finding fish host to achieve at least an intermediate level of abundance. Species with low success rate of finding fish hosts coupled with fish hosts having limited movement range exhibit satellite species characteristics, namely rare in numbers and sparse in distributions.


Parasitology ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 134 (12) ◽  
pp. 1767-1774 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. N. MIKHEEV ◽  
A. F. PASTERNAK ◽  
E. T. VALTONEN

SUMMARYWe tested the hypothesis that host specificity in ectoparasites does not depend exclusively on the features of the host but also on surrounding habitats, using 2 fish ectoparasites, Argulus coregoni and A. foliaceus (Crustacea: Branchiura), occurring sympatrically in Finnish lakes. Although these parasites are considered to be of low specificity, we found that the larger of the 2 species, A. coregoni developed a pronounced preference for salmonid hosts at the beginning of maturation (defined by the presence of copulating specimens). Argulus foliaceus infects a much wider range of fish hosts. We showed that specialization of A. coregoni on salmonids does not necessarily result from incompatibility with other fishes, but could instead reflect higher sensitivity of oxygen depletion compared with A. foliaceus. Adult A. coregoni may meet these demands by attaching to salmonids, the typical inhabitants of well-aerated waters. Young parasites of both species showed little host specificity and attached mainly to fishes with higher body reflectivity. In host choice experiments, A. coregoni of 4–5 mm length preferred salmonids (rainbow trout) to cyprinids (roach) irrespective of the type of fish host, on which it had been previously grown in the laboratory. We suggest that such an innate ontogenetic shift in host preference maintains the major part of the parasite population on its principal host, ensuring successful reproduction within suitable habitats.


Author(s):  
Wouter Koch ◽  
Peter Boer ◽  
Johannes IJ. Witte ◽  
Henk W. Van der Veer ◽  
David W. Thieltges

A conspicuous part of the parasite fauna of marine fish are ectoparasites, which attach mainly to the fins or gills. The abundant copepods have received much interest due to their negative effects on hosts. However, for many localities the copepod fauna of fish is still poorly known, and we know little about their temporal stability as long-term observations are largely absent. Our study provides the first inventory of ectoparasitic copepods on fish from the western Wadden Sea (North Sea) based on field data from 1968 and 2010 and additional unpublished notes. In total, 47 copepod parasite species have been recorded on 52 fish host species to date. For two copepod species parasitizing the European flounder (Platichthys flesus), a quantitative comparison of infection levels between 1968 and 2010 was possible. Whereas Acanthochondria cornuta did not show a change in the relationship between host size and infection levels, Lepeophtheirus pectoralis shifted towards the infection of smaller hosts, with higher infection levels in 2010 compared to 1968. These differences probably reflect the biology of the species and the observed decrease in abundance and size of flounders during the last decades. The skin-infecting L. pectoralis can probably compensate for dwindling host abundance by infecting smaller fish and increasing its abundance per given host size. In contrast, the gill cavity inhabiting A. cornuta probably faces a spatial constraint (fixed number of gill arches), thus limiting its abundance and setting a minimum for the host size necessary for infections.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Le Thi Thanh Tran ◽  
Le Van Luan ◽  
Tran Quang Hieu ◽  
Le Van Tan

Among soil pollutants, lead (Pb) is one of the toxic metal pollutants widely used in many industrial processes and occurs as a contaminant in environment. In this study, a field experiment was carried out to investigate the accumulation of lead from soil contaminated by this metal ion on the biomass of some vegetables, including spinach, lettuce, carrots, and potatoes. The results showed that lead was cumulative metal. Besides, the level of lead accumulation in soil of the studied vegetables decreased in the order of tubers of carrots, tubers of potato, spinach root, lettuce root, stems and leaves of spinach, stem and leaves of carrot, stems and leaves of potato, and stem and leaves of lettuce, respectively. Our investigations demonstrate the effect of copper and zinc micronutrient elements which play an important role in the growth and development of plants, on the accumulation of lead from contaminated soil of the studied vegetables. The obtained results showed that high concentration of copper and zinc in soil cause competition with lead in the process of absorption and accumulation in the plant. Specifically, copper and zinc showed the inhibition effect on the uptake and accumulation of lead by these plants.


2006 ◽  
pp. 246-250
Author(s):  
V. Voitsitsky ◽  
◽  
S. Khyzhnyak ◽  
O. Druzheruchenko ◽  
D. Lukashov ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 481-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noha Elhalawany ◽  
Rasha Abdel Baseer ◽  
Abdallah Bakr Mostafa ◽  
Abdel Gawad Rabei

New efficient chelating polymers (CPs) based on waste polystyrene functionalized by itaconic acid moieties in absence and presence of montmorillonite clay have been prepared using high shearing effect homogenizer. The obtained CPs have been characterized using spectrophotometric and thermal analyses. The prepared CPs have been used as potential adsorbents for removal of different toxic metal ions from their aqueous solutions. The adsorption performance of the obtained CPs was found to match well with Langmuir adsorption isotherms. The highest sorption affinity of the obtained CPs toward different metal ions was for copper and lead.


2015 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Nack ◽  
A.R. Bitja Nyom ◽  
A. Pariselle ◽  
C.F. Bilong Bilong

AbstractSpecies of the monogenean genus Quadriacanthus mainly infect fish belonging to the Siluriformes, especially the genera Clarias, Heterobranchus or Bagrus, and their host specificity is strict (oioxenous) or narrow (stenoxenous). An examination of the gills of 19 Papyrocranus afer from Lake Ossa, South Cameroon, revealed for the first time the presence of a species of Quadriacanthus from a fish host belonging to the Notopteridae. The morphology and the size of sclerotized parts of haptor and the male and female copulatory complexes suggest that this monogenean is a new species named Quadriacanthus euzeti n. sp. The fish genus Papyrocranus differs taxonomically from the usual fish hosts of Quadriacanthus and hence the presence of a species belonging to this genus on the gills of this host suggests the occurrence of a lateral transfer of Quadriacanthus from species belonging to Clarias or Bagrus which live sympatrically with P. afer in Lake Ossa.


Parasitology ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Whitfield ◽  
R. M. Anderson ◽  
N. A. Moloney

The behaviour which enables the cercariae of the ectoparasitic digenean,Transversotrema patialensis, to establish themselves on the surface of their fish hosts has been described experimentally using anaesthetized fish. Specialized regions of the cercarial tail, the arm processes, seem to be adapted for both specific recognition of, and rapid attachment to, the outer surface of a fish. Each arm process bears an array of nine ciliary sensory structures, the mammiform receptors, which have been tentatively identified as contact chemoreceptor organs involved in host recognition. Also present on each arm is an adhesive pad that mediates the initial attachment to the host. It is a differentiated region of the distal cytoplasm of the epidermal syncytium which invests the whole arm process. The cytoplasm of the pad region contains membrane-bounded adhesive granules, the contents of which are released during activation of the pad.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gayan A. Appuhamillage ◽  
Danielle Berry ◽  
Candace Benjamin ◽  
Michael Luzuriaga ◽  
John C. Reagan ◽  
...  

<div><div><div><p>Herein, we describe a 3D<br>printable hydrogel that is capable of<br>removing toxic metal pollutants from water<br>solutions. To achieve this, shear-thinning<br>hydrogels were prepared by blending<br>chitosan with diacrylated Pluronic F-127 (F127-DA) which allows for UV curing after printing. Several hydrogel compositions were tested for their ability to absorb common metal pollutants such as lead, copper, cadmium and mercury, as well as for their printability. These hydrogels displayed excellent metal adsorption with some examples capable of up to 95% metal removal within 30 min. We show that 3D printed hydrogel structures that would be difficult to fabricate by conventional manufacturing methods, can adsorb metal ions significantly faster than solid objects, owing to their higher accessible surface areas.</p></div></div></div>


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