PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Fabrício Ângelo Gabriel
AU  - Rachel Ann Hauser-Davis
AU  - Lorena Oliveira Souza Soares
AU  - Ana Carolina de Azevedo Mazzuco
AU  - Rafael Christian Chávez Rocha
AU  - Tatiana Dillenburg Saint’Pierre
AU  - Enrico Mendes Saggioro
AU  - Fábio Veríssimo Correia
AU  - Tiago Osório Ferreira
AU  - Angelo Fraga Bernardino
TI  - Metal contamination and oxidative stress biomarkers in estuarine fish following a mine tailing disaster
AID  - 10.1101/2020.06.29.177253
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.06.29.177253
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/06/29/2020.06.29.177253.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/06/29/2020.06.29.177253.full
AB  - The Rio Doce estuary in Brazil was impacted by the deposition of mine tailings caused by the collapse of a mining dam in 2015. Since the disaster, the estuary is experiencing chronic trace metal contamination effects, but potential trace metal accumulation in fishes has not been reported. Trace metals in aquatic ecosystems pose severe threats to the aquatic biota, so we hypothesized that the accumulation of trace metals in estuarine sediments nearly two years after the disaster would cause contaminant bioaccumulation, resulting in the biosynthesis of metal-responsive proteins in fishes. We determined trace metal concentrations in sediment samples, metal concentrations, and quantified stress protein concentrations in the liver and muscle tissue of five different fish species in the estuary. Our results revealed high concentrations of trace metals in estuarine sediments when compared to published baseline values for this estuary. The demersal fish species Cathorops spixii and Genidens genidens had the highest Hg, As, Se, Cr, and Mn concentrations in both hepatic and muscle tissues. Metal bioaccumulation in fish was statistically correlated with the biosynthesis of metallothionein and reduced glutathione in both fish liver and muscle tissue. The trace metals detected in fish tissues resemble those in the contaminated sediments present at the estuary at the time of this study and were also significantly correlated to protein levels. Trace metals in fish muscle were above the maximum permissible limits for human consumption, suggesting potential human health risks that require further determination. Our study supports the high biogeochemical mobility of trace metals between contaminated sediments and local biota in estuarine ecosystems.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.