Chronic and transgenerational effects of silver nanoparticles in freshwater gastropod Lymnaea stagnalis

Traditional ecotoxicological studies prove to be focused mainly on single-generation, multigenerational research in ecotoxicological testing is needed to improve the predictive approaches in ecological risk assessment. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been increasingly detected in aquatic environments due to their extensive use in consumer products. We investigated the transgenerational effects of AgNPs on the life traits of freshwater model gastropods Lymnaea stagnalis for two generations. The reversibility of the effects of using recovery experiments was also performed. Results showed that AgNPs induced high Ag bioaccumulation in the whole soft tissues of parental L. stagnalis after 21 days of exposure. The increased ROS production and reduced condition index and fecundity were found after exposure to AgNPs at 500 μg/L. These results highlight that under AgNPs exposure, adult gastropods might allocate more resources to resist oxidative stress rather than to growth or reproduction. Furthermore, the Ag accumulation and ROS production of egg clutches were significantly related to parental exposure duration and concentrations. On the other hand, isolated eggs exposure demonstrated biological effects were persistent in terms of the next generation. For example, after transfer to a clean medium, similar Ag bioaccumulation and ROS production were observed from eggs which parents were pre-exposed to 50 and 500 μg/L AgNPs. Current explicit consideration of offspring performance adds value to existing toxicity testing protocols. Parental exposure duration has important implications for offspring effects, and parental exposure can cause transgenerational changes in resistance that have significant implications for toxicity testing and adaptive responses. These effects across generations point out the need for multigenerational tests to assess the environmental risk of MNPs in aquatic organisms.