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Effects of Environmental Pollution on the Conservation of Ctenomys

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Tuco-Tucos

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Abstract

Environmental pollutants are related to genetic and epigenetic changes with different effects on natural populations, including the size of the population reduction due to loss of variability and loss of reproductive capacity. In the past few decades, interest in using biomarkers or bioindicators as monitoring tools to assess environmental pollution has increased considerably. This is because biomarkers are suitable not only to provide information on the health status of the exposed organisms but also on the quality and/or quantity of the exposure situation. The genus Ctenomys, popularly known as tuco-tucos, is endemic to South America and is being evaluated as a possible bioindicator of its habitat. Animals such as tuco-tucos, which have reduced the size of the population and still suffer from the impact on their environments, such as habitat fragmentation, are more susceptible to suffering DNA damage from exposure to pollutants and have a more catastrophic effect on the structure of its population. This chapter will present some studies on environmental mutagenesis that have been carried out with species of Ctenomys in South America. In addition, we will present possible molecular biomarkers for future studies. In conservation genetics, these analyzes performed with Ctenomys represent a new approach to assess the anthropogenic effect on natural mammal populations. These studies are important due to the emphasis on the feasibility of genotoxic assays and epigenetic tools in conservation studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Genética e Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Cristina A. Matzenbacher

  2. Universidade LaSalle – UNILASALLE and Universidade Luterana do Brasil - ULBRA, Canoas, RS, Brazil

    Juliana da Silva

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  1. Cristina A. Matzenbacher
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Correspondence to Juliana da Silva .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Thales Renato Ochotorena de Freitas

  2. Department of Genetics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Gislene Lopes Gonçalves

  3. Department of Ecology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Renan Maestri

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Matzenbacher, C.A., da Silva, J. (2021). Effects of Environmental Pollution on the Conservation of Ctenomys. In: Freitas, T.R.O.d., Gonçalves, G.L., Maestri, R. (eds) Tuco-Tucos. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61679-3_12

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