A passive sampler (the polar organic chemical integrative sampler; POCIS) was assessed for its ability to sample natural estrogens (17β-estradiol, E2; estrone, E1 and estriol, E3) and the synthetic estrogen (17α-ethynylestradiol, EE2) in the outlet of a sewage treatment works over several weeks. The performance of the POCIS was investigated and optimised in the laboratory before field deploymen...

Adult male fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) were exposed to effluent from the City of Boulder, Colorado wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) under controlled conditions in the field to determine if the effluent induced reproductive disruption in fish. Gonadal intersex and other evidence of reproductive disruption were previously identified in white suckers (Catostomus commersoni) in Boulder C...

17α-ethynylestradiol sex-reversed males of Oreochromis aureus (pseudofemales, ∆F, genotype ZZ) are used in aquaculture to produce a male monosex population by crossing with ZZ homogametic normal males. When placed with males (M) and females (F) in the same spawning tank, the spawning rate of F is higher than for ∆F. In order to understand this phenomenon, comparisons were made between the behav...

To probe the mechanisms responsible for pH and dissolved oxygen (DO) affecting the photodegradation of 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) in dissolved humic acid (HA) solution, EE2 aqueous solutions with pH values ranging from 3.0 to 11.0 and different DO conditions were irradiated by using a 300 W mercury lamp equipped with 290 nm light cutoff filters. In 5.0 mg L(-1) HA solutions (pH 8.0), EE2 was de...

Endocrine-disrupting compounds may produce infertility, nervous system disorders, and improper functioning of the immune system in humans and wildlife. Estrogens are classified as the most potent and common endocrine-disrupting compounds and the major point source for estrogen is municipal wastewater. Monitoring of estrogen is challenging, expensive, and intermittent; and therefore, the focus o...

It is well known that estrogenic compounds affect development of fertilized eggs of many species of birds, fish and amphibians through disrupted activity of carbonic anhydrase (CA). The most potent activity comes from the most commonly occurring synthetic sterol, 17α-Ethynylestradiol (EE2). Less is known about the responses of aquatic phytoplankton to these compounds. Here we show for the first...

Populations of amphibians are in decline in certain locations around the world, and the possible contribution of environmental contaminants, including estrogenic compounds, to these declines is of potential concern. In the current study, responses of the wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) to exposure to 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2), the synthetic estrogen used in oral contraceptives, during the la...

Xeno-estrogens, a class of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), can disturb estrogen receptor-dependent pathways involved in differentiation, proliferation or protection. Multiple methods have been developed to characterize the disturbances induced by EDCs in different cells or organs. In this study we have developed a new tool for the assessment of estrogenic compounds on differentiation. Fo...

Although intersex of fish species has been widely reported in aquatic environments, there is no appropriate biomarker of the effects to assess the occurrence of intersex. In the present study, mRNA expression profiles of 14 genes, which are either involved in ovary development and maintenance or have relatively high mRNA transcription levels in ovarian gene expression profiles in fish species, ...