Profenofos induced Protein Alterations in Fresh water crab, Paratelphusa jacquemontii (Rathbun)

Profenofos, a well-known organophosphate pesticide has been in agricultural use over the last two decades for controlling pests of paddy, cotton and tobacco. In the present study, an attempt has been made to study the effect of profenofos on protein content of different tissues like muscle (MU), hepatopancreas (HP) and gill (GL) of the freshwater crab, Paratelphusa jacquemontii (Rathbun). The crabs were exposed to sub lethal concentration (1/10th & 1/20th of 96 h LC50) of profenofos for a period of 15 days. The treatments of theseprofenofos brought about significant decrease in protein content in all tissues as compared to control. The maximum decrease was observed in muscle. The percent decrease of total protein content was in the order of: muscle > hepatopancreas > gills . The obtained results indicate that profenofos has more toxic. The significance of these studies as bioindicator for assessing the toxicity and economic importance of the crab are discussed.