Low Levels of Bisphenol-A Decrease Metabolic Rate and Boldness in Zebrafish, Danio rerio

Human impact alters the natural environment via multiple pathways, including contamination from pollutants. This human activity may adversely impact an organism’s ability to respond to environmental change. Using Bisphenol-A (BPA), a common environmental contaminant, I examined how exposure affected behavioral strategies critical for survival in a changing environment. BPA is used during plastic manufacturing, and it enters aquatic systems from wastewater streams; however, it is an endocrine-disruptor that has broad health effects from metabolism to behavior at a wide exposure range. In this study, I specifically tested whether environmentally relevant concentrations of BPA impact maximum metabolic rate and boldness in zebrafish, Danio rerio. I also examined activity level, optomotor response, body mass, and standard length to see if I can mechanistically explain any underlying changes caused by BPA. I treated groups of adult zebrafish for 7 days and exposed them to either 0.1% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO, control), a low environmentally relevant concentration of BPA (0.02 mg/L), or a 1-fold higher BPA concentration (0.2 mg/L). I found that the low exposure group experienced a decrease in maximum metabolic rate and the high exposure group showed a decrease in boldness. In other words, these changes in metabolism were not dosage dependent while the boldness results were dosage dependent. BPA had no effects on optomotor response, body mass, standard length or activity level. These results suggest that no level of BPA is safe, environmentally relevant concentrations are having an effect on adult organisms’ behavior and health that could affect their survival.