Penconazole is a widely used fungicide that is toxic to a variety of organisms including fish. In the present study, we investigated the developmental toxicity of
penconazole on zebrafish embryos by exposing to different concentrations of
penconazole (0.8, 1.6 and 2.4 mg/L) from 4-h post-fertilization (hpf). Hatching, survival, and heart rates, body length, malformation and expression of several genes were detected. The results showed that
penconazole exposure induced developmental toxicity, including delayed hatching, reduced survival, and heart rate. In addition to this, exposure to
penconazole caused malformations, including pericardial
edema, yolk sac
edema, axial malformation, tail malformation and
spinal curvature. Furthermore, RT-PCR results showed that
mRNA levels of
antioxidant genes were down-regulated after
penconazole exposure. On the other hand,
mRNA levels of
interleukin 1 beta and
interferon in embryos were up-regulated after exposure to
penconazole. In summary, our data indicated that
penconazole cause embryonic development toxicity on zebrafish embryos.