Maternal exposure to environmental antibiotic mixture during gravid period predicts gastrointestinal effects in zebrafish offspring

Abstract

Due to overuse, misuse, and poor absorption during treatment, antibiotics are consistently released into the environment, raising concerns about their impacts on ecological sustainability and health. In this study we performed transcriptome profiling to assess potential reproductive effects of an antibiotic mixture in gravid female zebrafish. Gravid fish (150 dpf) were exposed to a mixture of 15 commonly detected antibiotics at 0, 1, and 100 μg/L for 4 weeks. Concentrations of all the 15 antibiotics, especially chlortetracycline, were detected in the F0 ovary and F1 eggs after treatment, indicating maternal transfer of antibiotics. Impaired F0 growth (average 2.2 % and 24.3 % inductions in body length and ovary weight, respectively), and reduced F1 offspring survival (average 4.2 % reductions in survival at 120 hpf) was observed after maternal exposure to the 100 μg/L treatment. Pathway analyses of whole-transcriptome expression profiles from F0 ovaries predicted colorectal disorders. Similarly, pathways of F1 larval transcriptomes from treated females also predicted colorectal disorders along with intestinal apoptosis and oxidative stress, which may be related to growth impairment. These results show that maternal transfer of antibiotics occurs in zebrafish, resulting in transgenerational changes in F1 offspring survival and transcription that predict adverse gastrointestinal effects in offspring.

Keywords: Antibiotic; Gastrointestinal effects; Maternal transfer; Offspring; RNA sequencing.