Freshwater mussels are also native to sections of Europe. Our colleagues at the Ternopil V. Hnatyuk National Pedagogical University in The Research Comparative Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Laboratory in the Ukraine are working to understand the complex milieu of factors that have contributed to the decline of freshwater fauna in their country. The by-products of industrialization have impacted streams in Eastern Europe in many of the same ways they have impacted streams in the US. Sedimentation, erosion and contaminants have changed aquatic ecosystems and imperiled aquatic fauna. Similar to our streams in the US, many contaminants also pose a risk to
human health, and threaten the supply of water for human consumption
and recreation
Oksana Stoylar, her students and other University colleagues focus their efforts on identifying the presence of potential toxins in surface waters, and freshwater fauna.
Using unionids and other freshwater bivalves as indicator organisms they use biochemical and molecular techniques to assess the health of freshwater ecosystems and the potential human risks associated with use of these streams for drinking water or recreation. Metallothioneins, metal
buffering and stress proteins, are studied by the size-exclusion
chromatography and by ion-exchange liquid chromatography. Their content
in the tissue and metal content in them are also measured.
The
oxidative defense system is characterised by examining levels of superoxide dismutase (Cu,Zn-SOD and Mn-SOD), measuring catalase activity,
glutathione levels (GSH and GSSG), lipid peroxidation measured as
thiobarbituric acid reacting substance (TBARS) production; protein
carbonyls.
The microsomal biotransformation system is studied by the ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) and GSH-transferase activity, and other biomarkers, such as lysosomal membrane stability, acetylcholinesterase activity
(neurotoxicity), vitellogenin level (endocrine disruption), DNA damage are also used as indicators of stream health. By correlating levels of these contaminants with routine
measurements of temperature, manganate oxydizability, pH, hardness,
nitrites, nitrates, phosphates metals (Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, Cd, Pb) in water, the laboratory provides a broad assessment of overall ecosystem health.
Dreissana considered invasive in the US, are native to the streams in the Eastern Europe, but no less destructive in their native habitat. |
