UVA-induced photo recovery during early zebrafish embryogenesis

DNA photorepair has been widely studied in simple aquatic organisms that live in the marine environment, but is less understood in more complex species that live in freshwater. In the present study, we evaluated UVA-induced DNA photo recovery in embryonic stages of zebrafish, Danio rerio, a freshwater model species. Evaluation of UVB exposure and UVA photo recovery of zebrafish embryos revealed different UVB tolerances and capacities for UVA photo recovery at different stages of development. Effective UVA photo recovery was observed at 3 h post-fertilization (hpf), 6–7 hpf, and 12 hpf, but not in the early cleavage stage (2–32 cells). UVA photo recovery was most effective during the gastrula stage (6–7 hpf) of development, and less effective at earlier stages (e.g., 3 hpf) or later stages (e.g., 12 hpf). Embryos at the cleavage stage of development were found to be tolerant to extreme levels of UVB exposure, and possible mechanisms were discussed. For embryos at 6–7 hpf, examination of time window (or delay of UVA exposure) that would still permit recovery from UVB exposure suggested a short time period of 2 h. The transgenic fli-1 zebrafish with fluorescent vascular structure was used to show that embryos with normal morphological appearance could exhibit a disrupted vascular patterning, suggesting that this endpoint could provide a sensitive tool for detection of UV damage.