Populations of a cyprinid fish are self-sustaining despite widespread feminization of males.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Treated effluents from wastewater treatment works can comprise a large proportion of the flow of rivers in the developed world. Exposure to these effluents, or the steroidal estrogens they contain, feminizes wild male fish and can reduce their reproductive fitness. Long-term experimental exposures have resulted in skewed sex ratios, reproductive failures in breeding colonies, and population collapse. This suggests that environmental estrogens could threaten the sustainability of wild fish populations.

Results

Here we tested this hypothesis by examining population genetic structures and effective population sizes (N(e)) of wild roach (Rutilus rutilus L.) living in English rivers contaminated with estrogenic effluents. N(e) was estimated from DNA microsatellite geno

SUBMITTER: Hamilton PB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3922797 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature