Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Flow Cytometry Used To Assess Genetic Damage In Frogs From Farm Ponds, Bartholomew L. Bly, Melinda G. Knutson, Mark B. Sandheinrich, Brian R. Gray, Dean A. Jobe

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Flow cytometry (FC) is a laboratory method used to detect genetic damage induced by environmental contaminants and other stressors in animals, including amphibians. We tested FC methods on three species of ranid frogs collected from farm ponds and natural wetlands in southeastern Minnesota. We compared FC metrics for Rana clamitans between ponds with direct exposure to agricultural contaminants and reference (unexposed) ponds. Concentrations of atrazine in water from our farm ponds ranged from 0.04 to 0.55 ppb. We found that R. clamitans from exposed ponds had DNA content similar to frogs from unexposed ponds. Pond-averaged C-values (a measure of DNA …