Can a pollutant passed from parent trout into their eggs affect the next generation?

Details

In a controlled parental-exposure experiment, rainbow trout broodstock received intraperitoneal injections of corn oil containing a nominal dose of 0 or 3 μg of [14C]2,3,4,7,8-pentachlorodibenzofuran (P5CDF)/kg (8.8 nmol/kg). The fish were kept on a light cycle designed to induce spawning 10 months later.

Eggs were expressed from individual ripe females and divided into two lots. For each control female (Fc) and treated female (Ft), one lot was fertilized by a treated male (Mt), and the other by a control male (Mc). Radioactivity levels were measured in parental muscle and gonads, eggs, embryos, and fry.

Mean P5CDF concentrations in dorsal muscle were 604 pg/g (1.77 pmol/g) in treated females and 868 pg/g (2.54 pmol/g) in treated males. Fecundity did not differ between treated and control fish, and fertilization rates did not differ among any of the crosses. At spawning, egg P5CDF concentrations ranged from 68 to 443 pg/g wet weight, with a mean of 232 pg/g (0.68 pmol/g; N = 7).

Average prehatch mortality, posthatch survival, and survival through the swim-up stage and the first 21 days of feeding did not differ between cross groups. Within the treated-female × treated-male group (Ft × Mt), however, fertilization mortality, prehatch mortality, and total mortality were significantly correlated with egg P5CDF concentrations. Groups from treated females also showed marginal but statistically significant increases in the incidence of blue-sac-like disease.