ABSTRACT
Profenofos (EC(50)) is a persistent and toxic organophosphorus insecticide. Animals get exposed to profenofos via food and water. The present study was designed to explore the genotoxic effect of profenofos in the marine fish. The ubiquitously occurring marine fish, Therapon jarbua, was exposed to profenofos and its effect on DNA was measured using comet (single-cell gel electrophoresis) assay. DNA damage were scored using mean percentage of tail length and compared with the comet classes' viz., 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. In the first three doses, the (21.5, 43.0 and 86.0 µg L(-1)) comets were observed, of which the mean tail length differed significantly (p < 0.01) from those of unexposed, but not from each other. The mean tail length values were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in gill than in matured erythrocytes. The result indicates that DNA strand breaks in T. jarbua were due to the genotoxic potential of profenofos. From the study, we suggest that T. jarbua may be used as an indicator organism to assess the genotoxic risks of profenofos contamination in marine environments using Comet assay as an identification tool. We infer that organophosphorus insecticides may be dangerous to the marine lives.
