Arsenic toxicity in drinking water is a major concern across the globe, including parts of New Hampshire. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry currently has Arsenic ranked #1 on the substance priority list, which is determined to pose significant threat to human health. Although studies have looked at short-term toxicity effects, transgenerational chronic exposures are rarely investigated. Here, we look at shifts in acute and chronic Arsenic toxicities in our model organism Daphnia that has been exposed to 10 generations of environmentally relevant arsenic concentrations. We predict that offspring whose mothers were exposed to As will have higher tolerance for Arsenic compared to offspring of non-exposed mothers. Using techniques in mass spectrometry, we also look at somatic accumulation of arsenic in response to generational exposure. Documenting such shifts in susceptibilities across generations will provide opportunities to better understand the inheritance pattern of common environmental toxicants such as Arsenic.
