Effect of phthalates on development, reproduction, fat metabolism and lifespan in Daphnia magna Asmerom Seyoum, Ajay Pradhan ⁎ Biology, The Life Science Center, School of Science and Technology, Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden HIGHLIGHTS • Phthalates DEHP, DEP and DBP reduce Daphnia magna body size. • Phthalates increase lipid content by inhibiting fatty acid uptake and catabo- lism. • DEHP increases reproduction output. • DEP and DBP decrease lifespan. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT abstract article info Article history: Received 13 September 2018 Received in revised form 1 November 2018 Accepted 10 November 2018 Available online 12 November 2018 Editor: Damia Barcelo Phthalates are used as plasticizers to increase durability, resistivity and flexibility of plastic materials. The com- monly used phthalate, diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) is used in different plastic materials like food packaging, toys and medical devices. DEHP has been linked to different toxicities in humans as well as in animals, and as a consequence other phthalates, including dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and diethyl phthalate (DEP) are being intro- duced. The increased use of phthalates has resulted in contamination of aquatic ecosystem and it directly threatens the aquatic life. In this study, we analyzed the effects of three phthalates DEHP, DEP and DBP using freshwater organism Daphnia magna. Although, exposure of the three phthalates at 1 and 10 μM did not result any lethality and hatching delay, the chronic exposure for 14 days resulted in reduction of body length. There was enhanced fat accumulation on exposure to all the phthalates, as indicated by oil red O staining. qRT-PCR anal- ysis of genes involved in fat metabolism suggests that the increase in fat content could be due to inhibition of ab- sorption and catabolism of fatty acids. Reproduction analysis showed that DBP and DEP did not alter fecundity but surprisingly, DEHP at 1 μM increased reproduction by 1.5 fold compared to control group. Phthalates also showed negative effect on lifespan as DEP at 10 μM and DBP at both 1 and 10 μM significantly reduced the lifespan. Our data indicates that along with the banned phthalate DEHP, the other substitute phthalates DEP and DBP could also have detrimental effect on aquatic organisms. © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Plasticizer Metabolism Toxicity Lipid Gene expression 1. Introduction Phthalates, or, phthalic acid esters (PAEs) are commonly used as plasticizers for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to increase polymer's flexibility, softness and durability. Phthalates are used as solvents in various Science of the Total Environment 654 (2019) 969–977 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: ajay.pradhan@oru.se (A. Pradhan). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.158 0048-9697/© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv