CHANGE INHIBITION EFFECT OF SEX-SPECIFIC GENES EXPRESSION IN THE MEDAKA WITH NANOFILTRATION AND REVERSE OSMOSIS MEMBRANE FILTRATION

Abstract

 The gene expression that swiftly reacts to external stimulation can be applied to the rapid evaluation of the biological effect of fish. Sex-specific genes of medaka were searched using microarray in order to evaluate the estrogenic activity of the fish; the evaluation required an exposure time of 96 h. We evaluated the reduction of the estrogenic activity by the nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes using the feminization factor calculated from the genes expression profile. The average reduction ratios of the feminization factor for the NF and RO membranes were 47% and 95%, respectively.