AMPHIBIANS AS MODEL ORGANISMS FOR STUDY ENVIRONMENTAL GENOTOXICITY

Abstract

Animals, the silent sentinels, stand watch over the world's environmental health. Everyday, animals demonstrate intricate connections between them, us and our surroundings. Amphibians are vertebrates and include approximately 4400 existing species. Amphibians are in most cases, small, diverse and sensitive to environmental variability. They can be good indicators of habitat diversity, biological variety and local stressors on the environment. They are bathed in both water and air. They live outdoors on land and water and their skin, larvae and unshelled eggs are constantly exposed and in contact with the substances in their surroundings. We searched Web of Science and references of relevant publications to evidence the application of amphibians, especially Xenopus laevis as model animal in ecotoxicology.