Queiros, Libania et al. (2021) International Worm Meeting "Evidence for the inclusion of Caenorhabditis elegans in Environmental Risk Assessment routines"

Queiros, Libania, J. M. Goncalves, Fernando, Pereira, Patricia, Pacheco, Mario, Aschner, Michael, L. Pereira, Joana

[International Worm Meeting, 2021]

Caenorhabditis elegans has long been used as a choice for a laboratory model organism, and it has been linked to several discoveries that have led to Nobel Prizes. Although C. elegans' journey as an invaluable model in developmental biology and neurobiology is long, dating to the 1960s, its application in other research fields such as environmental toxicology is more recent. As a well-known experimental organism bearing high sensitivity to different environmental contaminants, and representing important functional levels in soil and aquatic ecosystems, C. elegans has high potential to be extensively integrated within Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) routines. The major advantages supporting the inclusion of C. elegans in lower tiers of ERA, where a first screening of potential hazardous scenarios to the biota of both environmental compartments is performed, as well as the large array of endpoints that can be tested in this context, are herein presented. In addition, its sensitivity to contaminants such as metals and pesticides, as well as specific strengths and limitations, are compared to other laboratorial model organisms commonly used in ERA, such as Daphnia magna (crustacean) and Eisenia fetida (earthworm). The inclusion of C. elegans in ERA routines is encouraged, since it may provide ecologically relevant insights on the effects of contaminants, thus improving the establishment of appropriate environmental protection benchmarks.