Transcriptomic analyses in brains of exposed F0 zebrafish and their unexposed F1 and F2 offspring after early-life exposure to permethrin 10 microg/L

In the present study, zebrafish were exposed to permethrin during early-life, and F1 and F2 generations were bred unexposed. Permethrin exposed F0 fish showed a hypoactive phenotype at adulthood, whereas males from the F1 and F2 generations showed a decrease in anxiety-like behavior. Thus, we performed transcriptomic changes to identify underlying molecular mechanisms. They showed limited overlap between sex and generations. In F0, genes and pathways related to glutamatergic synapse activity (Gene Ontology and Reactome databases) were significantly enriched and may explain the behavioral effects. In F1 and F2 generations, mechanisms are less clear as limited changes which could correlate with behavior were observed in the F1 generation. RNA-sequencing was performed on males and females from the F0, F1 and F2 generations (4 replicates treatment, 4 replicates control for each sex and each generation)