Fayez A. Bakry, Karem El-Hommossany, M. S. Abd El-Atti and Somaya M. Ismail
The use of pesticides is widespread in agricultural activities. These pesticides may contaminate the irrigation and drainage systems during agricultural activities and pests’ control and then negatively affect the biotic and abiotic component of the polluted water courses. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of the pesticides diazinon and profenofos on some biological activities of Biomphalaria alexandrina snails such as fatty acid profile, some antioxidant enzymes like thioredoxin reductase (TrxR), sorbitol dehydrogenase (SDH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) as well as glutathione reductase (GR) and lipid peroxidation (LP) and protein patterns in snails' tissues exposed for 4 weeks to LC10 of diazinon and profenofos. The results showed that the two pesticides caused considerable reduction in survival rates and egg production of treated snails. Identification of fatty acids composition in snails' tissues treated with diazinon and profenofos pesticides was carried out using gas liquid chromatography (GLC). The results declared alteration in fatty acid profile, fluctuation in percent of long chain and short chain fatty acid contributions either saturated or unsaturated ones and a decrease in total lipid content in tissues of snails treated with these pesticides. The data demonstrate that, there was a significant inhibition in the activities of tissues SOD, CAT, GR, TrxR and SDH in tissues of treated snails while a significant elevation was detected in lipid peroxidation as compared to the normal control. On the other hand, the electrophoretic pattern of total protein showed differences in number and molecular weights of protein bands due to snails' treatment. It was concluded that the residues of diazinon and profenofos pesticides in aquatic environments have toxic effects on B. alexandrina snails.
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