Toxic contaminants, including pesticides, microplastics, and heavy metals, have a significant impact on aquatic life and other aquatic species. These pollutants come from anthropogenic sources such as crop growing, industrial operations, effluent, residential wastewater, and leaching, as well as environmental events like storms, floods, and seismic processes. Pesticides, particularly pesticides, have been shown to have detrimental effects on aquatic ecology, causing decreased growth, restricted larvae and embryo development, and dysfunction in primary organs like the gill, liver, kidney, and gonad. Genotoxicity from pesticide exposure raises safety concerns, as prolonged exposure can lead to oxidative stress, mutagenicity, and cellular apoptosis. Pesticide exposure can lead to elevated levels, even without measurable concentrations in biological matrices. The toxicity of pesticides directly affects aquatic life, leading to high mortality rates or the complete elimination of species that serve as their food source.To maintain the well-being of aquatic organisms, particularly fish, and protect aquatic ecosystems, it is crucial to investigate safe, acceptable, and efficient alternatives to pesticides. In this study, we focuses on the hematological, biochemical, and histopathological changes induced by pesticide exposure and highlights strategies for mitigating the adverse impacts of pesticides on fish. Further investigation is needed to determine species suitability for toxicity detection, an essential aspect of monitoring aquatic environments for agricultural pesticides.

A group of schools of striped eel catfish Plotosus lineatus (Thunberg, 1787) was photographed during scuba diving at depths of 10 m and 17 m on 11 July 2022 and on 24 September 2022 from Kızkalesi and Boğsak regions in the Mersin Bay of the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. With the present study, P. lineatus is extending its distribution to the western Mediterranean coastal waters after its first occurrence in 2016 in the İskenderun Bay of Turkish Marine waters.

In this study, DNA damage in hybrid tilapia exposed to the short-transport process has been investigated. Gill samples were taken from tilapia which after immediately from the transport process (t0 group), after 6 hours from transport process (t6 group), after 12 hours from transport process (t12 group), after 24 hours from transport process (t24 group) and not applied transport process (control group) have been investigated and the results have been compared as statistically. The Damage frequency (%), Arbitrary Unit and Genetic Damage Index (%) were evaluated in gill cells of tilapia. As a result of the study, it is determined that highest the damage frequencies (%) as 69.00±4.58 and 66.00±3.00 were significantly observed in t0 and t6 groups respectively (P

Pesticides are considered to be one of the biggest economic and ecological problems in the aquatic ecosystem. Monitoring for toxic effects and screening for different insecticides is vital and crucial for reducing adverse effects on aquatic organisms and public health. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to determine genotoxic effect of acetamipridine in a model fish species, Cyprinus carpio, using the micronucleus test and Comet assay. Common carp (average weight of 1.35 ±0.11g) were exposed to three different concentrations of acetamipridine (0.2, 0.4, and 0.8 g/L) based on previously detected aquatic environmental concentrations, constituting an acute test for a week. At the end of study, the Damage frequency (%), Arbitrary unit and Genetic damage index (%) were evaluated in gill and liver cells of carp by Comet assay. Also, micronucleus frequencies and erythrocyte abnormalities were determined in erythrocytes cells of carp by micronucleus test. Our results revealed significant increases in the frequencies of micronuclei and DNA strand breaks in C. carpio, following exposure to acetamipridine and thus demonstrated the genotoxic potential of this pesticide on fish. Our findings also indicated the suitability of the fish micronucleus test and comet assay in assessment of aquatic genotoxicity of insecticides.

The records of the striper eel catfish Plotosus lineatus have been assigned based on morphological characters in the Mediterranean Sea. However, molecular and genetic analyses are needed to confirm the morphological taxonomic determination and avoid misidentification. In this study, the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene region was used for genetic confirmation of Plotosus lineatus in the Mediterranean Sea. The obtained P. lineatus sequences were found to have a 100% identity match with the Red Sea and Mediterranean records. The present molecular genetic study confirms the presence of P. lineatus in Turkish marine waters. Also, this study is the first genetic confirmation of P. lineatus on the coast of Türkiye and in the Mediterranean Sea.

Industrial effluents, agricultural runoff, and municipal wastewaters contain unknown substances and complex mixtures that are released into the environment and can lead to contamination of surface and subsurface waters. Such activities have endangered the existence of ecosystems and their inhabitants. Changes in the genome caused by genotoxic agents led to mutations and pose a burden to the populations of fish species. In the present study, we have used the alkaline Comet assay to detect the genotoxicity in Suez pufferfish (Lagocephalus suezensis) sampled from two different gulfs (Iskenderun and Mersin Bay), Northeastern Mediterranean. At the end of the study, the damage frequency (%), arbitrary unit and genetic damage index (%) were evaluated in gill and liver cells of L. suezensis by comet assay. The DNA damage in the gill and liver cells of L. suezensis in the present study were observed with a higher level of DNA damage in gill cells compared to liver cells in both the Iskenderun and Mersin Bays. The highest level of DNA damage (55.01±1.02%), arbitrary unit (143.01±7.21) and genetic damage index (1.43±0.07 %) were found in gill cells of L. suezensis from Mersin Bay. Statistically significant differences were found between DNA damage, Arbitrary unit and genetic damage index values of the two locations (p < 0.001). In conclusion, this study indicates that comet assay gives sensitive results in monitoring the pollution, especially the pollution of the gulf, and thus it might be used as a standard method in regularly monitoring the pollution of the coastal ecosystem.