Sediment toxicity tests are valuable tools for assessing the potential effects of contaminated sediments in dredged material evaluations because they inherently address complexity (e.g., unknown contaminants, mixtures, bioavailability). Although there is a need to understand the chronic and sublethal impacts of contaminants, it is common to conduct only short-term lethality tests in evaluations...

Neonicotinoids are widely used insecticides, but their use is subject of debate because of their detrimental effects on pollinators. Little is known about the effect of neonicotinoids on other beneficial insects such as parasitoid wasps, which serve as natural enemies and are crucial for ecosystem functioning. Here we show that sublethal doses of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid impair sexual com...

Pine voles (Microtus pinetorum) were collected from pesticide-treated orchards in New York (USA) and fed to three captive American kestrels (Falco sparverius) for 60 days to evaluate potential hazards from soil-borne persistent insecticides. Three control kestrels were fed uncontaminated laboratory mice (Mus musculus). The pine voles contained an average of 38 ppm lead, 48 ppm DDE and 1.2 ppm d...

Imidacloprid, a water-soluble neonicotinoid pesticide used globally in many applications, has been the subject of numerous studies (1) to determine its sublethal effects (5-100 ppb, LD50 ∼200 ppb) on honeybees. This study was undertaken to determine, by ELISA assay, the presence of imidacloprid in water sources potentially frequented by honeybees in urban, suburban, and rural environments acros...

In order to reveal some cytotoxic features of lidocaine, the effects of lidocaine at sublethal concentrations (10 mM or less) on rat thymocytes were examined by the use of flow-cytometric technique with fluorescent probes. Treatment with lidocaine at 3-10 mM for 1-3 hr significantly increased intracellular Ca and Zn concentrations under normal condition. After the removal of external Ca and Zn,...

Organophosphates and carbamates are major agrochemicals that strongly affect different neuroenzymes and the growth of various fish species. Here, we study the effect of sublethal concentrations of profenofos and carbofuran on the activity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) and the associated health risk in fish. Labeo rohita fingerlings were exposed to three sublet...

Long-chain proline-rich antimicrobial peptides such as bumblebee abaecin show minimal activity against Gram-negative bacteria despite binding efficiently to specific intracellular targets. We recently reported that bumblebee abaecin interacts with Escherichia coli DnaK but shows negligible antibacterial activity unless it is combined with sublethal doses of the pore-forming peptide hymenoptaeci...

Alpha-cypermethrin, a synthetic pyrethroid, is used as an insecticide in agricultural settings and is increasingly replacing organophosphates and carbamates because of lower application rates and lower toxicity to mammals. Because very little is known about the acute and chronic toxicity of this compound for soil-living organisms, the present study investigated acute and sublethal toxicity of a...