Endocrine Disruption of Sexual Selection by an Estrogenic Herbicide in the Mealworm Beetle (Tenebrio Molitor)

Overview

Journal Ecotoxicology

Specialties Environmental Health
Toxicology

Date 2013 Oct 3

PMID 24085605

Citations 8

Authors

Malcolm L McCallum

Makensey Matlock

Justin Treas

Barroq Safi

Wendy Sanson

Jamie L McCallum

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The role that endocrine disruption could play in sexual selection remains relatively untested, and although estrogens occur in insects, little information exists about their biological role in insect reproduction. Atrazine is a commonly applied herbicide that mimics estrogen in vertebrates. Tenebrio molitor were raised from egg to adult under a gradation of environmentally relevant atrazine exposures and a non-treated control. Atrazine was delivered in the drinking water ad libitum. Female T. molitor were provided with a choice between unrelated males raised under three levels of atrazine exposures. Female preference for males demonstrated a non-monotonic inverted U-shaped response to atrazine exposure. There was no significant difference between the control and the high exposure to atrazine. Excluding the control, female preference increased as exposure concentration increased. These results have important repercussions for nonlethal effects of endocrine disruption on populations, their capacity to interfere with sexual selection, and the role of estrogen in pheromone communication among insects.

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