Toxic effects of glufosinate-ammonium on zebrafish embryos and larvae

Glufosinate-ammonium (GLA) is a broad spectrum non-selective herbicide. The increasing usage of GLA has drawn people's attention to questions of its biological safety. In this study, zebrafish embryos (Danio rerio) were used as a laboratory model to test concentration dependent responses of GLA including mortality and morphological changes. In addition, in situ hybridization was employed to investigate the effect on Vasa gene expression which is known to be important in reproduction. And QRT-PCR was used for the quantification. The results revealed that embryo mortality was increased after the exposure to 1.6 μg/L GLA. And the induced curvature of tail, and the inhibition of pigmentation were observed after exposing to 1.3 μg/L GLA. Furthermore, Vasa expression missing was also induced by GLA (1.3 μg/L) during the in situ hybridization, and the Vasa gene expression was decreased by 3.8 fold compared to the control group. The above results indicate that GLA has lethal toxicity, teratogenicity and potential of reproductive toxicity.