Table 1. Impact of developmental PBDE exposure on zebrafish survival, morphology and final
number of adults used in assessment of active avoidance learning.
Chemical
exposure
Embryo
medium
0.1% DMSO
PBDE 47*
PBDE 99*
PBDE 153*
Initial N
5 dpf survival N
Morphology
30 dpf survival N
Active avoidance tested Na
96
95/99%
Normal
94/98%
59
96
96
96
96
82/85.4%
81/84.3%
89/92.7%
81/84.3%
Normal
Normal
Normal
Normal
61/63.5%
56/58.3%
69/71.8%
58/60.4%
39
38
36
58
*PBDEs were each at a 0.1µM final concentration in 0.1% DMSO.
a
Adult fish were 25 weeks old at the time of shuttle box tests.
Table 2. Incidence of adult zebrafish that learned to always avoid the shock (learners) or that
never avoided the shock (non-learners).
Treatment
N
Learnersa
Total
Trainc
16 (27.1%)
5
3 (7.7%)
1
Recall
11
2
c
Non-learnersb
Total
Traind
3 (5.1%)
3
1 (2.6%)
1
Recalld
0
0
EM
59
0.1%
39
DMSO
PBDE 47
38
5 (13.2%)
3
2
3 (7.9%)
3
0
PBDE 99
36
7 (19.4%)
0
7
5 (13.9%)
5
0
PBDE 153
58
4 (6.9%)
1
3
1 (1.7%)
1
0
a
Total number of fish (and percent of N) from treatment that avoided receiving a shock without
returning to the unconditioned stimulus for 8 consecutive trials.
b
Total number of fish (and percent of N) from each treatment that never escaped the entire 12
second shock period for 8 consecutive trials at which point testing was automatically aborted.
c
Indicates in which phase the 8th consecutive successful trial occurred.
d
Indicates in which phase the 8th consecutive failed trial occurred.
Table 3. Groupwise statistical comparisons of active avoidance learning rates.
Comparison
EM to 0.1% DMSO
EM to PBDE 47
EM to PBDE 99
EM to PBDE 153
0.1% DMSO to PBDE 47
0.1% DMSO to PBDE 99
0.1% DMSO to PBDE 153
PBDE 47 to PBDE 99
PBDE 47 to PBDE 153
PBDE 99 to PBDE 153
a
Train phase P-valuea
0.60281
1.00E-06
0.18682
0.02576
1.00E-06
0.95223
0.74049
0.00011
7.00E-05
0.99448
Recall phase P-value
1.00E-06
1.00E-06
0.99873
1.00E-06
0.00126
1.00E-06
0.98683
1.00E-06
0.00215
1.00E-06
P-value from Tukey’s Honest Significant Difference test of pairwise comparisons of individual
ANOVAs for the regressions in Figure 5.
Table 4. Comparison of the mean number of shock period shuttles in each treatment to those in the 0.1% DMSO control group.
Comparison
0.1% DMSO to EM
0.1% DMSO to PBDE 47
0.1% DMSO to PBDE 99
0.1% DMSO to PBDE 153
Train phase
mean difference a
0.30768
7.45172
0.89718
1.42576
Train phase
P- value b
0.83449
1.00E-06
0.04792
1.00E-05
Recall phase
mean difference
0.44927
4.63178
0.19842
0.54345
Recall phase
P-value
0.25654
1.00E-06
0.93165
0.09259
a
The mean number of shuttles in the 0.1% DMSO groups was 5.4 ± 0.2 in the Train phase and 3.0 ± 0.2 in the Recall phase.
b
P-value from Tukey’s Honest Significant Difference test of pairwise comparisons of individual ANOVAs.