ESTUDOS ECOTOXICOLÓGICOS ENVOLVENDO O GÊNERO RHINELLA: UMA ABORDAGEM CIENCIOMÉTRICA E ANÁLISES GENOTÓXICAS.

Abstract

The action resulting from the expansion of urban and agricultural areas can cause an imbalance in the ecosystem and reach non-target organisms, such as amphibians. In this sense, this work aimed to investigate the scientific contribution of ecotoxicological studies involving animals of the genus Rhinella. As a result of this investigation, the first ecotoxicological study with amphibians dates from 1952, but only in 2009 the first works with this genus were published. The species R. arenarum was the most found in the bibliography, being found in more than 64% of the total of studies. Pesticides were the most tested contaminants in research, followed by heavy metals. The genus Rhinella has about 90 species and only 8 were found in the work, which reflects the long way to go to fill knowledge gaps on ecotoxicological data for the species and protect biodiversity from the impacts generated by human actions. Associated with this context, and to reduce the knowledge gaps, a study was carried out to investigate the susceptibility to genotoxic damage in Rhinella diptycha tadpoles exposed in urban and agricultural environments in the municipality of Rio Verde, Goiás, Brazil. The experiment was designed for one in situ and one laboratory investigation, with analysis of the damage recovery capacity. The results showed that animals from agricultural areas showed a higher frequency of genotoxic damage compared to those from urban environments. Also, the animals from the urban area, showed cells as binucleated and notched, nuclear abnormalities, more frequently when compared to the animals that were in crops area. When comparing the in situ samples with those of the negative control, that is, those that remained in clean water, a decrease in the frequency of damage was observed. Thus, this study demonstrates that anurans from agricultural areas are susceptible to genotoxic damage and further studies should be carried out, especially using multiple biomarkers for R. diptycha.