Research Article Reproductive Toxicity of Pomegranate Peel Extract Synthesized Gold Nanoparticles: A Multigeneration Study in C. elegans Mahnoor Patel , 1 Nikhat J. Siddiqi , 2 Preeti Sharma, 1 Abdullah S. Alhomida , 2 and Haseeb A. Khan 2 1 Department of Biotechnology, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, 395007, Surat, Gujarat, India 2 Department of Biochemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia Correspondence should be addressed to Haseeb A. Khan; khan_haseeb@yahoo.com Received 28 April 2019; Revised 30 June 2019; Accepted 11 July 2019; Published 28 August 2019 Guest Editor: Ziyou Zhou Copyright © 2019 Mahnoor Patel et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. C. elegans is a preferential model for testing environmental toxicity of compounds including nanomaterials. The impact of multigeneration exposure of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on the lifespan and fertility of C. elegans is not known and therefore is investigated in this study. We used pomegranate (Punica granatum) peel extracts as a reducing agent to synthesize gold nanoparticles (PPE-AuNPs) from chloroauric acid. Nematodes were grown till adult stage and then exposed to 25, 50, and 100 μg/ml of PPE-AuNPs at 20 ° C for 72 hours and then assessed for lifespan and fertility. The same protocols were followed for subsequent F1, F2, and F3 generations. The results showed that PPE-AuNPs dose-dependently but insignificantly reduced the lifespan of C. elegans. Exposure of PPE-AuNPs significantly and dose-dependently reduced the fertility of C. elegans in terms of the number of eggs produced. The reproductive toxicity of PPE-AuNPs was found to be minimal in parental generation (F0) and maximal in F3 generation. In conclusion, biologically synthesized PPE-AuNPs adversely affect the fertility of C. elegans while the factors responsible for reproductive toxicity are inherited by subsequent generations. 1. Introduction There is a growing trend for the synthesis and widespread use of nanoparticles (NPs) for applications in different areas such as medicine, engineering, bioremediation, cos- metics, and food industry [1–7]. Such a wider scope of engineered NPs needs to be channelized by their prudent use for availing their benefits without ignoring their adverse effects on humans and the environment [8]. The extensive use of nanoparticle has led to their release in the environment causing them to be considered environ- mental toxicants [9]. Among the metallic NPs, gold nano- particles (AuNPs) have been recognized as promising tools for biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility and ease in functionalization [10, 11]. Although gold is a chemically inert material, its transformation into nanoscale imparts the antigenic quality as several studies have shown an acute phase immune activation following injection of AuNPs in rats [12–15] and mice [16, 17]. However, the primed animals (preexposed to AuNPs) showed protection against AuNP-induced acute immune activation in the form of reduced expression of proinflammatory cytokines [18]. Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is a free-living, trans- parent nematode with a short life cycle of a few days and can be quickly grown in a laboratory. Interestingly, the majority of human genes have homologs in C. elegans. A comparative proteomics study has shown that 83% of the worm proteome possesses human homologous genes [19]. C. elegans is therefore considered a model organism for understanding human gene function. The neural system, immune system, and digestive and reproductive systems of C. elegans are identical to the vertebrates which makes it an excellent model for toxicity studies as well [20–22]. C. elegans is ideally suited for the screen- ing of NPs while mitigating the hurdles associated with the use of mammalian animal models, such as ethical issues, handling expertise, space requirement, and time constraints [23–25]. Hindawi Journal of Nanomaterials Volume 2019, Article ID 8767943, 7 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/8767943