Behavioral alteration and DNA damage of freshwater snail Bellamya aeruginosa stressed by ethylbenzene and its tissue residue

Abstract To study the sublethal effects induced by ethylbenzene and the capability of a freshwater gastropod Bellamya aeruginosa to take up and depurate ethylbenzene, the snail was subjected to two treatments, a 23-day exposure period followed by a 17-day depuration period. Behavioral alteration, namely retraction response, was observed during the exposure period, and the proportion of retracted snails increased under each treatment as the exposure time prolonged but there was no linear relationship between the retracted proportion and the exposure dose. Such behavioral alteration was probably due to the disturbance of membrane permeability stressed by ethylbenzene. Ethylbenzene uptake in unretracted snails was greater than in retracted snails, while the depuration abilities in the two different responses of snails had no significant difference from each other. Because of the limited capability of snails to detoxify ethylbenzene, the depuration was mainly through a slow excretion process and therefore ethylbenzene was still present in the tissue of snail after 17-day depuration. DNA damage was induced significantly in snails exposed to ethylbenzene, and the levels of DNA damage showed positive time-response and dose-response relationships, and moreover the levels of DNA damage had no difference between the two different responses of snails. There was no linear relationship between the level of DNA damage and the amount of residual ethylbenzene in tissue, which may be related to the adaptation mechanism in snail. Overall, the results suggest that the snail has high capability to take up ethylbenzene and low ability to depurate it, and ethylbenzene has potential genotoxicity to snail.