Gonadal differentiation and gene expression patterns in sentinel native fish populations: sensitive indicators of environmental pollutants in Alberta rivers and lakes

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There is growing concern that environmental contaminants with hormone-like activity adversely influence human health and wildlife. Environmentally persistent endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC) mimic or block the effects of natural estrogens, androgens, and thyroid hormones, and are suspected of causing health defects in both humans and wildlife through disruption of the endocrine system. Direct exposure to EDCs may be through water, diet, and industrial or household products. There is a need to evaluate the risk of environmental effects of EDCs and development of effective and accurate methods to detect environmental contaminants, which are not removed by existing sewage treatment plants. Recent studies by Alberta Environment and our laboratories have provided alarming evidence for not only the presence of a broad range of pharmaceuticals, EDCs, and other organic contaminants in wastewater treatment plant effluents and receiving rivers of Alberta, but also alteration of development and reproduction of fish in southern Alberta rivers. Our main objective is to