Maternal or Paternal Antibiotics? Intergenerational Transmission and Reproductive Toxicity in Zebrafish

Despite the known direct toxicity of various antibiotics to aquatic organisms, the potential chronic impact through intergenerational transmission on reproduction remains elusive. Here, we exposed zebrafish to a mixture of 15 commonly consumed antibiotics at environmentally relevant concentrations (1 and 100 μg L^-1) with a cross-mating design. A high accumulation of antibiotics was detected in the ovary (up to 904.58 ng g^-1) and testis (up to 1704.49 ng g^-1) of F0 fish. The transmission of antibiotics from the F0 generation to the subsequent generation (F1 offspring) was confirmed with a transmission rate (k) ranging from 0.11 to 2.32. The maternal transfer of antibiotics was significantly higher, relative to paternal transfer, due to a greater role of transmission through ovarian enrichment and oviposition compared to testis enrichment. There were similar impairments in reproductive and developmental indexes on F1 eggs found following both female and male parental exposure. Almost all antibiotics were eliminated in F2 eggs in comparison to F1 eggs. However, there were still reproductive and developmental toxic responses observed in F2 fish, suggesting that antibiotic concentration levels were not the only criterion for evaluating the toxic effects for each generation. These findings unveil the intergenerational transmission mechanism of antibiotics in fish models and underscore their potential and lasting impact in aquatic environments.