Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://repositorio.inpa.gov.br/handle/1/15057
Title: A toxic diet: Transfer of contaminants to offspring through a parental care mechanism
Authors: Maunder, Richard J.
Buckley, Jonathan
Val, Adalberto Luis
Sloman, Katherine A.
Keywords: Cadmium
Animals
Biparental
Cichlid
Diet
Discus
Environmental Exposure
Epidermis
Feeding Behavior
Female
Growth, Development And Aging
Male
Metabolism
Mucus
Water Pollutant
Biparental
Cadmium
Discus
Mucus
Animal
Cadmium
Cichlids
Diet
Environmental Exposure
Epidermis
Feeding Behavior
Female
Male
Mucus
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Issue Date: 2013
metadata.dc.publisher.journal: Journal of Experimental Biology
metadata.dc.relation.ispartof: Volume 216, Número 19, Pags. 3587-3590
Abstract: The transfer of maternal contaminants to offspring during oogenesis and gestation is documented in many animals, and in mammals, contaminants may pass from mother to offspring during lactation. Although other non-mammalian vertebrates provide parental care in the form of nutritive secretions for offspring to feed from, the potential for toxicant transfer during nonmammalian parental care is rarely considered. The discus fish, Symphysodon spp., employs an unusual parental care strategy where fry feed on parental epidermal mucus for several weeks after hatching. This strategy has the potential to act as a method of contaminant transfer. In discus adults, both waterborne and dietary toxicants are sequestered and secreted into their epidermal mucus, the food on which fry depend. To determine whether parents could channel these contaminants directly to offspring, we exposed parents to aqueous cadmium (Cd) and recorded the subsequent feeding behaviour and Cd content of fry. Fry continued to feed normally from contaminated mucus and accumulated significant tissue concentrations of Cd. In conclusion, this parental care mechanism of the discus fish can expose offspring to harmful contaminants during the sensitive early stages of life and highlights that parent to offspring contaminant transfer after birth may be more widespread than previously thought. © 2013 Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.
metadata.dc.identifier.doi: 10.1242/jeb.089102
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