Assessment of micronuclei induction in peripheral blood and gill cells of some fish species from Aliağa Bay Turkey

•This is the first study about micronucleus formation in fish species in Aliağa Bay.•Micronucleus were calculated 18-11‰ for Pagellus erythrinus and Diplodus vulgaris.•MN was found to be higher at polluted area for P. erythrinus and D. vulgaris.•Binucleus of fish showed that polluted area more genotoxic/mutagenic than clean area.

The aim of this paper was to assess the biological damages in fish caused by various mutagenic agents present in polluted waters of Aliağa Bay. For this purpose, micronuclei (MN) test was performed using peripheral erythrocytes and gill cells of different fish specimens caught from both polluted and relatively clean sites from Aliağa Bay (Turkey). Micronuclei tests is a system of mutagenicity testing used for determining changes in DNA fragments such as micronuclei in the cytoplasm of interphase cells caused by the pollution and chemicals in the environment. Thus, it was attempted to determine whether pollution affected the erythrocytes and gills of fish living in Aliağa Bay at the level of DNA by the means of micronuclei (MN) test. According to the results of present study, frequency of MN was found at high level in polluted site. In conclusion, this study indicates that the micronuclei test gives sensitive results in monitoring the pollution, especially the pollution of harbor, and thus it might be used as standard method in regularly monitoring pollution of coastal ecosystem.