Parental diet affects embryogenesis of the great pond snail (Lymnaea stagnalis) exposed to cadmium, pyraclostrobin, and tributyltin.

Diet quality has a strong impact on life-history traits, but it is not usually considered as a factor in toxicity tests. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate how diets differing in nutritional content affect sensitivity to cadmium, pyraclostrobin, and tributyltin in Lymnaea stagnalis offspring. Three groups were fed a different diet each: lettuce, high-caloric pellets, or a combination of both. Snails fed pellets and both diets had similar growth; however, snails fed lettuce showed lower growth until the fourth month. Egg masses were collected from adult snails fed each diet and exposed to 3 concentrations of either cadmium, pyraclostrobin, or tributyltin. We quantified time to hatch, hatching success, and the developmental stages of embryos. We measured fecundity in adults and total lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins in adult snails and egg masses. Adult snails fed different diets produced a similar number of egg masses, but the number of eggs per egg mass in snails fed pellets was lower than for snails fed the other 2 diets. We found that adult snails fed pellets had a higher lipid content compared to snails fed the other 2 diets. However, egg masses from parental snails fed pellets did not hatch, including those from the controls. Interestingly, egg masses exposed to the lowest concentration of tributyltin had low hatching success. These observations on offspring performance suggest that there are important diet effects that can strongly influence responses that could be diet- and chemical-dependent. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:2428-2438. © 2018 SETAC.