Understanding factors that modify the impacts of environmental androgens in fishes

最近出现了一个新的研究重点是药物、激素及其模拟物对环境的影响。这些化合物的特点是效力高，浓度一般较低，能够影响生物体的特定发育阶段，有时具有多代效应。最近在与杀虫剂、兽药和复杂废水（如城市污水、纸浆和造纸厂米尔斯的废水）有关的环境中观察到模拟或干扰雄性激素或雄激素的化合物。雄激素的天然功能有一些方面是鱼类特有的，这可能使鱼类比鸟类或哺乳动物更容易或更不容易受到环境中雄激素的影响。出于这个原因，重要的是专门检查鱼类中环境雄激素的效力。鱼类是非常多样化的，似乎也表现出广泛的物种对雄激素的影响的敏感性。因此，了解哪些物种可能最容易受到环境雄激素的影响也至关重要。本研究将通过对三种不同鱼类的反应来探讨物种对环境雄激素敏感性的基础。这将在生物化学水平，完整细胞水平和完整生物体进行，以充分了解控制雄激素效力的机制。此外，将构建模型来了解分子的化学结构与其作为雄激素的能力之间的关系。这项研究预计将导致关于雄激素在环境中的潜在机制的新的基础知识，并提供能够开发模型来预测哪些化合物可能造成环境风险的实用程序。

There has been a recent and emerging research focus on the environmental impacts of drugs, hormones and their mimics in the environment. Such compounds are characterized by their high potency, generally low concentration, and the ability to impact specific developmental stages of organisms, sometimes with multi-generational effects. Compounds that mimic or interfere with male sex hormones, or androgens have recently been observed in the environment associated with pesticides, veterinary remedies and complex effluents such as those from municipal sewage and pulp and paper mills. There are aspects of the natural function of androgens that are specific to fishes and this may make fishes more or less susceptible to the effects of androgens in the environment than either birds or mammals. For this reason, it is important to specifically examine the potency of environmental androgens in fishes. Fishes are very diverse and also appear to exhibit a wide range of species sensitivity to the effects of androgens. Thus, it is also vital to understand which species may be most at risk from environmental androgens. This research will explore the basis of species sensitivity to environmental androgens through the examination of the responses of three diverse fish species. This will be conducted at the biochemical level, the level of intact cells, and with intact organisms to fully understand the mechanisms that govern the potency of androgens. Furthermore, models will be constructed to understand the relationship between the chemical structure of molecules and their ability to act as androgens. This research is expected to result in new and fundamental knowledge regarding the potential mechanisms of androgens in the environment and provide the utility of being able to develop models to predict what compounds may pose environmental risk.