Geno- and Ecotoxicity Evaluation of Silver Nanoparticles in Freshwater Crustacean Daphnia magna

Genotoxic-and ecotoxic assessments of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were conducted on the freshwater crustacean Daphnia magna. AgNPs may have genotoxic effects on D. magna, given that the DNA strand breaks increased when exposed to this nanoparticle. Increased mortality was concomitantly observed with DNA damage in the AgNPs-exposed D. magna, which suggests AgNPs-induced DNA damage might provoke higher-level consequences. The results of the comparative toxicities of AgNPs and Ag ions suggest that AgNPs are slightly more toxic than Ag ions. Overall, these results suggest that AgNPs may be genotoxic toward D. magna, which may contribute to the knowledge relating to the aquatic toxicity of AgNPs on aquatic ecosystems, for which little data are available.