MONITORING ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS IN INDIGENOUS BLUE MUSSELS ( MYTILUS SP) SAMPLED FROM THE LAGOON OF VENICE

The environmental stress of Mytilus sp. specimens collected from the mussel populations of four specific sites inside the Lagoon of Venice and from one offshore site nearby, has been investigated by means of an ecotoxicological biomarker. The approach has been applied to the Lagoon of Venice in that it constitutes the drainage basin of a highly industrialized region. The study concerned the genotoxic effects, evaluated as DNA strand breaks by single cell gel electrophoresis, in digestive gland cells and in hemocytes of mussels collected from December 2005 to September 2006. In both tissues mussels collected inside the Lagoon showed higher levels of DNA damage compared to specimens from the offshore site with a damage trend significantly increasing from the Lagoon border towards the inner parts