Impact of Cement Dust on Some Biological Parameters of Trachyderma hispida (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) Inhabiting The Vicinity of a Cement Factory, Mariout region, Alexandria, Egypt
Zeinab A El-Moaty, Dalia A Kheirallah and Doha A Elgendy
The objective of this study was to quantify the concentration of heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Cr, Zn, Cd, Co and Ni), levels of enzymes (AST and ALT), protein and nucleic acid (DNA and RNA) content in the ground beetles, Trachyderma hispida at two sampling sites. The selected sites that varying considerably in the load of air pollution, located in the Mariout region, west of Alexandria on the Mediterranean cost, Egypt. The first site (cement dust site) was near to the cement factory- Elhammam city. While the second one (reference site) was at Burg-ElArab city. Insects were sampled in two periods: breeding period (April-November), and non-breeding period (December-March).The data obtained from this study showed that the concentration of Cu and Ni in the soil and leaf litter were obviously high in both studied sites. In addition, six mean differences of heavy metals out of seven were proven to be highly significant in the cement dust than the reference site. No difference in levels of Cr in soil and leaf litter was detected in the two sites (p>0.05). Insects collected over the breeding and non-breeding periods contained variable concentration levels of most tested heavy metals in the hard exoskeleton than soft tissues of males as well as females in both cement dust and reference sites. A significant decline in enzyme activities in both males and females sampled from the two selected sites during the non-breeding period as compared to insects sampled during breeding period (p>0.05). A significant reduction in protein biosynthesis and transcriptional activity was recorded in insects collected from the cement dust site (p<0.05). So, it could be concluded that T. hispida is severely affected by pollutants in the environment, resulting in obvious changes in biochemical processes and cytogenetic parameters.
Zeinab A El-Moaty, Dalia A Kheirallah, Doha A Elgendy. Impact of Cement Dust on Some Biological Parameters of Trachyderma hispida (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) Inhabiting The Vicinity of a Cement Factory, Mariout region, Alexandria, Egypt. J Entomol Zool Stud 2016;4(5):797-805.