Reproductive Toxicity and Multi/Transgenerational Effects of Emerging Pollutants on C. elegans

Emerging pollutants (EPs) are receiving increasing attention due to the threats they pose to the environment and human health. As EPs continue to emerge, risk assessment requires many model animals. Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) has been an outstanding toxicological model organism due to its growth and development characteristics. Particularly, in studying the transgenerational influences of EPs, C. elegans has advantages in saving time and cost due to its short generation cycle. As infertility has become a major problem in human reproductive health, reproductive toxicities of EPs on contemporary nematodes and across generations of C. elegans were introduced in this review. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms involved in germ cell apoptosis, spermatogenesis, and epigenetic alteration were discussed. Future research opportunities and challenges are also discussed to expand our understanding of the reproductive influences of EPs.