Schedule and Program - North Carolina Academy of Science

Antidepressant Impairs Zebrafish Motor Development and Behavior:Ramifications of Pharmaceutical Drugs in the EnvironmentLauren W. Stranahan*Elon UniversityAntidepressants are a class of drug used for the treatment of human psychological conditions that work byaltering brain chemistry. They are one of the most widely prescribed drugs and have been found contaminatingsurface water in the US and abroad. Fluoxetine (Prozac) is one popular antidepressant that increases serotoninlevels in the human brain and has been detected in rivers at concentrations in the ng/L range. Previous studieshave found that high concentrations of fluoxetine permanently impaired the swimming activity of zebrafishexposed embryonically. In this study, zebrafish larvae were exposed chronically to several lower concentrationsdesigned to better approximate environmental levels. Swimming activity of larvae was monitored under a videomicroscope and the number of lines larvae crossed in a testing arena over the course of two minutes was recorded.A second assessment of swimming activity was made using a video tracking software (TopScan LITE) to measuretotal distance traveled by the larvae during the recording period. Suppression of swimming activity was seen atconcentrations as low as 0.02 ug/L beginning after 4 weeks of life. Activity levels remained suppressed for alltreatment concentrations through week 6 with most larvae having a greater latency between the start of recordingand initiation of swimming activity. The two methods for assessing activity levels were additionally compared,with the software being far more sensitive to larval movement but with consequently higher levels of variation. Theresults of this study increase concern about environmental impacts on aquatic life exposed to low concentrationsof pharmaceutical drugs.A quantitative analysis of the reproductive morphology of Hawaiianendemic Planchonella sandwicensisLauren R. Stutts*, John C. HavranCampbell UniversityPlanchonella sandwicensis is a morphologically variable tree endemic to the Hawaiian archipelago. It wasformerly divided into multiple species, before being regrouped into a single taxon. We have previously analyzedthe vegetative morphology of P. sandwicensis, and determined that there are significant differences between leafmorphology of island populations from east to west, some of which may be correlated to environmental factors.Many early comparative analyses of P. sandwicensis investigated flower and fruit morphology, particularly lookingat size and shape of the sepals and fruit. In this study, 115 specimens originally collected on the islands of Kauai,Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Maui, and Hawaii were analyzed to quantify interisland variations in morphology. Wequantified size and shape of reproductive structures by measuring fruit length and width, and classified fruitshape; we also measured sepal length and width, and determined whether the sepal apex angles were acute orobtuse. Canonical variates analysis (CVA) and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were conducted to examinevariation seen between specimens, and Tukey-Kramer multiple comparisons tests were used to see if the differencesbetween interisland populations were significant. Canonical variates analysis suggests that the reproductive traitscontributing to the variation seen between interisland populations are pedicel length, sepal length, and sepalwidth, but no clear pattern is evident. Using multiple comparisons test, we concluded that pedicel length is theonly reproductive trait showing an east to west difference across the archipelago, ranging from 1 mm on Maui andHawaii to 26 mm on Oahu.72 - NC Academy of Science