Abstract            Volume:12  Issue-5  Year-2024         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

With the ever-increasing demand for the usage of plastics, plastic pollution has become an alarming concern worldwide. Disposal of plastic wastes into aquatic environments, be it freshwater or saltwater, has led to the disruption of aquatic ecosystems at different levels. In the aquatic media, discarded plastics undergo disintegration by several processes to give rise to secondary MPs. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE), one of the common forms of plastic which is widely used, can undergo the same fate to give rise to its secondary MPs in nature. Likewise, pesticides can also act as environmental pollutants as these are rampantly used to check pests and subsequently increase the crop yield. Non-target aquatic organisms like fishes may be affected by agricultural activities by means of run-off of agrochemicals from farms into aquatic ecosystems, especially freshwater ones. Monocrotophos (MCP), a popular organophosphate pesticide, finds its widespread use in agriculture. The present study reported the effects of LDPE (in the form of secondary MPs) alone and in combination with MCP on certain biochemical parameters such as tissue protein level and activity of catalase (CAT) of the climbing perch, Anabas testudineus, at exposure period of 24h, 48h and 72h. Fish feed was supplemented with 10% LDPE-MPs and optimum doses of MCP was administered directly to water of respective pots. When compared to the tissue protein and CAT activity in C (control), T1 (treated with MCP) and T2 (treated with LDPE MPs), the tissue protein and CAT activity in T3 (treated with both LDPE MPs and MCP) decreased and increased considerably, respectively, in a time-dependent manner. Considerable variation has been observed in the biochemical parameters of the fish from 24 h to 72 h of exposure to the pesticide MCP. After72h, the maximum decrease in tissue protein in liver (60.337±1.593 mg/g tissue) and in muscle (33.333±2.923mg/g tissue), and maximum increase in activity of CAT in liver (0.503±0.027 U/mg protein) and muscle (0.234±0.060 U/mg protein) were observed in the fish collected from T3. Statistical analyses indicated significant change between treatments. The adsorption property of LDPE MPs (adsorbent) with MCP (adsorbate) was established. The results of the study indicated that tissue protein level and CAT activity could be used as biomarkers to determine the toxicity level of MPs in water and its effect in combination with contaminants like pesticides on fishes or even other aquatic organisms.

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