ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICITY EFFECT OF ENDOSULFAN ON PROTEIN LEVELS IN BRAIN AND MUSCLE OF FRESHWATER FISH, Channa Striatus (BLOCH).

Pesticides are used all over the world to control the insects, pests of food crops, and livestock. Due to their injudicious and indiscriminate usage, water bodies are continuously polluted. Pesticides, ultimately finds their way into aquatic habitats such as rivers, lakes and ponds, and have been found to be toxic to organisms. Most of the pesticides enter into the food chain are cause physiological damage for the aquatic organisms also develop various metabolic abnormalities. Endosulfan, an organochlorine pesticide, is recognized as a persistently toxic substance and considered as a potential organic pollutant. Endosulfans had been reached alarming level in water bodies and soil sediments and were also detected in animal samples. Endosulfan is extremely toxic to fish and it cause massive effect. The present study is to assess the protein content in brain and muscle of the fresh water fish Channa striatus exposed to sublethal concentration of endosulfan1/10th (high), 1/15th (medium), 1/20th (low) of the 96 hour LC¬¬550 value for the period of 7,14 and 21 days. The fish exposed to endosulfan showed, gradual decreases in protein level for 7, 14 and 21 days in brain and muscle tissue. The depletion of protein content in brain and muscle tissue of fresh water fish, Channa striatus was due to the utilization of protein to counteract the toxicant stress caused by pesticide.