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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Translational and Clinical Endocrinology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1459329
This article is part of the Research Topic Environmental Endocrine Disruptors: Mechanisms, Implications, and Advances in Detection and Mitigation in Endocrinology View all 5 articles

Long-term exposure to environmental concentration of dinotefuran disrupts ecdysis and sex ratio by dysregulating related gene expressions in Chironomus kiinensis

Provisionally accepted
Fenghua Wei Fenghua Wei Shuangxin Wu Shuangxin Wu *Long Li Long Li *
  • Jiaying University, Meizhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Currently, although there have been a few reports on the endocrine disrupting effects of neonicotinoids, yet this effect on Chironomidae during long-term exposure remains unknown. Here, ecdysis and sex ratio, along with ecdysone relevant gene expressions of representative neonicotinoid dinotefuran on Chironomus kiinensis were investigated at environmental concentrations by long-term exposure. Low dose of dinotefuran delayed pupation and emergence via inhibiting ecdysis. Sex-ratios of adults shifted toward male-dominated populations with the concentration of dinotefuran increasing. The corresponding transcriptions of ecdysis genes, ecr, usp, E74, and hsp70 were significantly downregulated in the midge. For estrogen effects, the vtg gene expression was upregulated but no significant change for err gene. These results would improve our understanding of the endocrine disrupting mechanisms of neonicotinoid insecticides to Chironomidae and provide data support for assessing their potential environmental risks.

    Keywords: Neonicotinoid insecticides, Environmental concentration, endocrine disruption, Chironomidae, Sex ratio

    Received: 04 Jul 2024; Accepted: 12 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wei, Wu and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Shuangxin Wu, Jiaying University, Meizhou, China
    Long Li, Jiaying University, Meizhou, China

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