P.G. Department of Zoology, Ganjdundwara P.G. College, Ganjdundwara, Etah, (U.P.), India.
The present paper deals with the effect of parathion on uptake and metabolism of aquatic ciliate protozoan, Tetrahymena pyriformis in river Kali at Distt. Etah (U.P.). Tetrahymena pyriformis is a representative microfauna of aquatic ecosystem. To assess the effect of parathion on Tetrahymena pyriformis in river Kali, 0.1 ppm, 0.5 ppm and 1.0 ppm parathion for 2–12 hours is taken to exposed. In the present investigation, this aquatic ciliate protozoan took 10 hours to accumulate maximum 923.43 ppm amount of parathion from a medium containing 1.0 ppm insecticide. Maximum bioconcentration factor of 973.80 was obtained 0.1 ppm parathion effect after 8 hours of treatment. The minimum bioconcentration factor 54.78 was observed with 1.0 ppm of parathion after 2 hours of treatment. This investigation can have significant consequence in aquatic eco-system, since this aquatic cliliate protozoan may acts as carrier of insecticidal pollutant between water and other organism in the food chain. Microscopic examination of Tetrahymena pyriformis also indicated marked changes in it cellular morphology.
Parathion, Ciliate protozoan, Metabolism, River Kali
