CYTOGENETIC DISRUPTION IN FISHES AS BIOINDICATOR OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY IN TWO ESTUARINE SYSTEMS UNDER DIFFERENT EXPOSITION TO ANTHROPOGENIC INFLUENCES

Abstract

Considering that the estuaries constitutehydrological systems exposed to anthropic activities, theestuarine fishes can be used to indicate the contaminationprocess available by the bio-concentration of elements andalso by cytogenetic alteration. In this study, the observationof micronucleus in the blood cellules of estuarine fishesshowed be a very important in the genotoxicity monitoringwater quality. About 2000 blood cells of fishes captured atSantos and Cananéia estuaries, at winter 2006 wereobserved using a microscopy. These two estuaries aresubmitted to different anthropic impacts and the first one isstrongly industrialized. The 24 individual from 12 speciesobtained from Cananéia estuary did not presentedmicronucleus in erythrocytes, while in a group of 45 fishesbelong to 10 species, from Santos estuary, the micronucleusobservation reaches 0,2%, that is important in aclassification of genotoxicity effect in fishes undercontaminated environment. FAPESP2005/50769-2,CNPq552437/2007-7 and INCT-TMOcean 573601/2008-9.Index Terms ⎯ Cytogenotoxicity, Micronucleus test,estuarine system.