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Acetylcholinesterase Activity in Brain Tissue of Profundulus punctatus and Poecilia butleri from a Watershed of Southern Mexico

Edgar TJ*, Juanita RG, Victor MCG

Organophosphate and carbamate compounds are used in agriculture and husbandry in the Coatán watershed and have been widely used in maize, coffee and banana crops, where they are carried to the water bodies. These compounds inhibit the acetylcholinesterase enzyme activity in aquatic organisms, which is considered a biomarker for organophosphate and carbamates in the environment. The objective of this work was to evaluate the brain acetylcholinesterase activity inhibition in the fish species Profundulus punctatus and Poecilia butleri from Coatán watershed. The river was subdivided according to environmental and anthropic activities: upper, middle, transition and lower zones. Since none of the species are distributed all along the river, two species were collected, Profundulus punctatus for upper and middle zones and Poecilia butleri for transition and lower zones. The collecting was performed in two seasons, high and low precipitation. The enzyme activity was measured in the fish brain tissue and the analysis results revealed that the activity decreased from high to low precipitation in all river zones, enzymatic inhibition in upper zone ranging from 19.27 in high precipitation to 40.48% in low precipitation seasons and in the middle zone from 22.70 to 38.12% in high and low precipitation respectively. In the transition and lower zones, the inhibition ranging from 55.96 to 72.82% and 52.04 to 64.48% in high and low precipitation respectively. The inhibition of the enzymatic activity in brain tissue on Profundulus punctatus and Poecilia butleri of the Coatán River could be considered as indicator of pesticides in the aquatic environment