Sukanya Mehra1 and Pooja Chadha2
1PG Department of Zoology, Khalsa College Amritsar, Punjab, India 143001
2 Department of Zoology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab, India 143001
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to PC 

Received: 06-10-2022 Accepted: 08-01-2023 Published: 12-01-2023

Abstract
Over recent decades, environmental pollution is rapidly increasing because of the anthropogenic 
activities of uncontrolled development, for example, industry, transport, agriculture, and 
urbanization, which generates harmful contaminants for living organisms including humans. These 
contaminants get accumulated in the organism via different routes and get bioaccumulated in 
different tissues exerting detrimental effects at different levels (molecular, cellular and 
physiological levels). The measurement of biological assays in sentinel species to access quality and 
changes of the environment is known as environmental biomonitoring which provides an indication 
of environmental stress. Several biomarkers evaluate the nature and extent of the exposure and 
evaluation of adverse biological responses to pollutants in a biomonitoring program of the aquatic 
environment. These include behavioral response, genotoxicity (comet assay and micronucleus 
assay) and oxidative stress. Here we present the importance of these biomarkers.

 

Citation

Mehra S and Chadha P (2023) Molecular Biomarkers as Key Factors to Evaluate the Extent 
of Industrial Pollution Exposure. Environ Sci Arch 2(STI-2):18-22.

​

References

Alimba CG, Ajiboye RD and Fagbenro OS (2017) Dietary ascorbic acid reduced micronucleus and 
nuclear abnormalities in Clarias gariepinus (Burchell 1822) exposed to hospital effluent. Fish 
Physiology and Biochemistry 43(5): 1325–1335. DOI: 10.1007/s10695-017-0375-y.
Ateeq B, Farah MA and Ahmad W (2005) Detection of DNA damage by alkaline single cell gel 
electrophoresis in 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic-acid- and butachlor-exposed erythrocytes of Clarias 
batrachus. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 62(3): 348–354. DOI: 
10.1016/J.ECOENV.2004.12.011.
Atli G, Alptekin Ö, Tükel S, et al. (2006) Response of catalase activity to Ag+, Cd2+, Cr6+, Cu2+ 
and Zn2+ in five tissues of freshwater fish Oreochromis niloticus. Comparative Biochemistry and 
Physiology - C Toxicology and Pharmacology 143(2): 218–224. DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpc.2006.02.003.
Mansour M, El-Kashoury A, Rashed M, et al. (2009) Oxidative and biochemical alterations induced 
by profenofos insecticide in rats. Nature and Science 7(2): 1-15.
Mohanty G, Mohanty J, Nayak AK, et al. (2011) Application of comet assay in the study of DNA 
damage and recovery in rohu (Labeo rohita) fingerlings after exposure to phorate, an 
organophosphate pesticide. Ecotoxicology 20(1): 283–292. DOI: 10.1007/s10646-010-0580-2.
Osterauer R, Faßbender C, Braunbeck T, et al. (2011) Genotoxicity of platinum in embryos of 
zebrafish (Danio rerio) and ramshorn snail (Marisa cornuarietis). Science of the Total Environment 
409(11): 2114–2119. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.01.060.
Pandey AK, Nagpure NS, Trivedi SP, et al. (2011) Investigation on acute toxicity and behavioral 
changes in Channa punctatus (Bloch) due to organophosphate pesticide profenofos. Drug and 
Chemical Toxicology 34(4): 424–428. DOI: 10.3109/01480545.2011.585650.
Parmar A and Shah A (2019) Cytogenotoxicity of azo dye Reactive Red 120 (RR120) on fish Catla 
catla. Environmental and Experimental Biology 17(3): 151–155. DOI: 10.22364/eeb.17.15.
Rishin A, Priyatha C V and Chitra KC (2019) Induction of genetic damage in peripheral erythrocytes 
of the fish, Anabas testudineus exposed to sublethal concentration of Acid Orange 7. Research & 
Reviews: A Journal of Life Sciences 9(2): 1–10.
Sharma M, Chadha P and Borah MK (2018) Histological alterations induced by 4-Nonylphenol in 
different organs of fish, Channa punctatus after acute and sub-chronic exposure. Journal of 
Entomology and Zoology Studies 6(4): 492–499.
Environmental Science Archives (2023) Vol. II Special Thematic Issue - 2 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7527951
Song SB, Xu Y and Zhou BS (2006) Effects of hexachlorobenzene on antioxidant status of liver and 
brain of common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Chemosphere 65(4): 699–706. DOI: 
10.1016/j.chemosphere.2006.01.033.
Stara A, Kristan J, Zuskova E, et al. (2013) Effect of chronic exposure to prometryne on oxidative 
stress and antioxidant response in common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.). Pesticide Biochemistry and 
Physiology 105(1): 18–23. DOI: 10.1016/j.pestbp.2012.11.002.

​

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. Visit for more details http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.