Mechanistic insights into the effect of nanoparticles on zebrafish hatch

Abstract

Aquatic organisms are susceptible to waterborne nanoparticles (NP) and there is only limited understanding of the mechanisms by which these emerging contaminants may affect biological processes. This study used silicon (nSi), cadmium selenide (nCdSe), silver (nAg) and zinc NPs (nZnO) as well as single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) to assess NP effects on zebrafish (Danio rerio) hatch. Exposure of 10 mg/L nAg and nCdSe delayed zebrafish hatch and 100 mg/L of nCdSe as well as 10 and 100 mg/L of uncoated nZnO completely inhibited hatch and the embryos died within the chorion. Both the morphology and the movement of the embryos were not affected, and it was determined that the main mechanism of hatch inhibition by NPs is likely through the interaction of NPs with the zebrafish hatching enzyme. Furthermore, it was concluded that the observed effects arose from the NPs themselves and not their dissolved metal components.

Keywords::

• hatching enzyme
• nanoparticle
• hatch
• ZHE1
• protein interaction

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Keith Tierney, Dr. Kathy Magor and Dr. Andrew Waskiewicz for the use of equipment and analysis software. They also thank Ganive Bhinder for technical assistance with the videotaping, Lindsey Felix for characterisation data on vnZnO and Dana Snell and James Ede for data collection. The authors would also like to acknowledge the generous contribution of nanomaterials from Dr. Darren Anderson of Vive Crop Protection. Research was funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Vanier Canadian Graduate Scholarship and an Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship to KJO, a NSERC Strategic Grant to GGG and JGCV and a NSERC-NRC-BDC-EC grant (#RES0002319) to GGG and JGCV.