Determining the Impacts of an Aquatic Copper Exposure to Ambystoma gracile (Northwestern Salamander)

Determining the Impacts of an Aquatic Copper Exposure to Ambystoma gracile (Northwestern Salamander) | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Determining the Impacts of an Aquatic Copper Exposure to Ambystoma gracile (Northwestern Salamander) Blake Danis, Geoffrey Su, Megan Donahue, Vicki Marlatt This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6637182/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This study investigated the acute and subchronic toxicity of copper on Northwestern Salamander (Ambystoma gracile) larvae under varying water hardness conditions. Acute exposure experiments demonstrated that larvae in soft water had lower LC50 values than those in moderately hard water, with LC50 values of 33.16 µg/L and 1383 µg/L, respectively. Subchronic exposure to copper resulted in delayed development, reduced survival, and growth inhibition, with a 35-day LC50 of 28.97 µg/L. Gene expression analysis was conducted for the acute copper exposures and revealed a significant increase in metallothionein 1 (mt1), a protein indicative of metal detoxification response in most vertebrates. However, expression levels of thyroid hormone receptor genes (thra, thrb) were unchanged. Additionally, there was no impact on the expression of an estrogen receptor (esr1α) and a deiodinase (dio1) gene. Comparisons with previous studies on anuran species highlighted both similarities and differences in copper sensitivity and developmental responses depending on the anuran species. This variation underscores the importance of species-specific studies in understanding the broader ecological impact of copper pollution on amphibians. Finally, this research provides critical data on a representative caudate amphibian species, a taxa that is typically not included in ecological risk assessments due to lack of toxicity data. Copper Development Salamander Gene expression Exposure study Full Text Supplementary Files SupplementalCopperNWSAECTSFUbdanissfu.ca.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6637182","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":456543757,"identity":"476c2541-fc21-494c-8943-3e529fa85855","order_by":0,"name":"Blake Danis","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAqklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACA4YEBiCyYWBvIFFLGgPPAZK0MDAcJkGLOXvyswcP/py355FIYPzwgxgtlj3PzA0S224n9kgkMEv2EOWwGwlmEokNtxPsJRLYGHiI05L+TSLhzzmQw9gY/xCnJccMqPgAI9BhbMxE2WLZ86ZMIrEtObGH52GztAwxWszZ07dJ/vhjZ8/Dnnzw4xtitCABxgYSNYyCUTAKRsEowAkAHO0wNaqMLz8AAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1141-3348","institution":"Simon Fraser University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Blake","middleName":"","lastName":"Danis","suffix":""},{"id":456543758,"identity":"2a478c82-b26a-4436-a0c0-1ca1621d96b6","order_by":1,"name":"Geoffrey Su","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Simon Fraser University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Geoffrey","middleName":"","lastName":"Su","suffix":""},{"id":456543759,"identity":"ae4518b7-3add-49c3-ab29-51379b72b597","order_by":2,"name":"Megan Donahue","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Simon Fraser University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Megan","middleName":"","lastName":"Donahue","suffix":""},{"id":456543760,"identity":"3fa185bc-b7d0-4f66-8fed-233f01ea23f0","order_by":3,"name":"Vicki Marlatt","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Simon Fraser University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Vicki","middleName":"","lastName":"Marlatt","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-05-11 01:56:51","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6637182/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6637182/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":83167526,"identity":"fe463d6f-3e68-4959-a1a3-70d73f84503a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-20 16:27:03","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1050250,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ManuscriptCopperNWSAECTSFUbdanissfu.ca.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6637182/v1_covered_d6965bc9-ae16-41af-8dca-22d7d9dda274.pdf"},{"id":82908751,"identity":"f616df45-952f-41f1-ae6b-f3d83c1dafc9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-16 14:52:31","extension":"docx","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":15880,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SupplementalCopperNWSAECTSFUbdanissfu.ca.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6637182/v1/6e9a11c5cd60ae16b4b9ce2c.docx"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"Determining the Impacts of an Aquatic Copper Exposure to Ambystoma gracile (Northwestern Salamander)","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Copper, Development, Salamander, Gene expression, Exposure study","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6637182/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6637182/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"This study investigated the acute and subchronic toxicity of copper on Northwestern Salamander (Ambystoma gracile) larvae under varying water hardness conditions. 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