Title: Study on effect of pollution on genotoxic damage in Cirrhinus mrigala and Catla Catla from River

Biography:

Shahid Mahboob is presently the Professor Department of Zoology, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He earned his PhD in Zoology in 1992 with specialization in freshwater nutrition from University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Later he received Postdoctoral training in 2002 from the Department of Aquatic Sciences, Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia. Previously he has been Professor / Dean/Vice Chancellor, GC University, Faisalabad, Pakistan. My teaching career started in 1987 after Masters from University of the Agriculture, Faisalabad. He has published over 220 research paper in peer reviewed research journals. He has authored One Book and also won research grants from various national and international funding agencies.

Abstract

Industrial development, expansion of urban populations and increased coverage of industrial, domestic water supply and sewerage give rise to larger quantities of municipal wastewater. Disposal of toxic sewage wastes with large volume of water could reduce biological oxygen demand to the lethal level by removing entire oxygen from the water body. Some very toxic chemicals are released into the lakes, streams and rivers e.g., compounds of mercury, Zinc, Lead and Copper etc. causing death of aquatic populations even at very low concentrations. This can cause metabolic activation giving rise to toxic metabolites in the nervous tissues. Comet and Micronucleus assays have been used to assess DNA damage in Catla catla and Cirrhinus mrigala collected from polluted areas. Heavy metals Cd, Cu, Mn. Zn, Pb, Cr, Sn and Hg were detected by atomic absorption spectrophotometry in River Chenab water. All physicochemical parameters and heavy metals were found beyond the tolerable limits. Comet assay showed significant (p<0.05) DNA damage in Catla catla and Cirrhinus mrigala from three different sites of the polluted area of the River Chenab. Significant (p<0.05) differences were observed in polluted and farmed fish. Micronucleus assay showed similar findings for single and double micronucleus induction in Catla catla and Cirrhinus mrigala. These findings infer that these novel fish DNA damage assays to detect genotoxicity, could be used as expedient toxicity screening of aquatic environments.