- Full (HTML) - Full (PDF) - Related EHP Articles - PubMed:Related Articles - PubMed:Citation - Cited in PMC - Purchase This Issue

Ronald L. Jenkins,¹ Elizabeth M. Wilson,^2,3,4 Robert A. Angus,⁵ W. Mike Howell,¹ Marion Kirk,⁶ Ray Moore,⁶ Marione Nance,¹ and Amber Brown¹

¹Department of Biology, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, USA; ²Laboratories for Reproductive Biology, ³Department of Pediatrics, and ⁴Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; ⁵Biology Department and ⁶Comprehensive Cancer Center Mass Spectrometry Shared Facility, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

Abstract
We have previously documented the presence of progesterone and androstenedione in the water column and bottom sediments of the Fenholloway River, Taylor County, Florida. This river receives paper mill effluent and contains masculinized female mosquitofish. We hypothesized that plant sterols (e.g., ß-sitosterol) derived from the pulping of pine trees are transformed by bacteria into progesterone and subsequently into 17-hydroxyprogesterone, androstenedione, and other androgens. In this study, we demonstrate that these same androgens can be produced invitro from the bacterium Mycobacterium smegmatis. In a second part to this study, we reextracted and reanalyzed the sediment from the Fenholloway River and verified the presence of androstadienedione, a 1 steroid with androgen activity. Keywords: 17-hydroxyprogesterone, androgen-dependent gene expression, androstadienedione, androstenedione, biotransformation of progesterone, environmental androgens, Fenholloway River, Florida, Gambusia holbrooki, masculinized mosquitofish, Mycobacterium smegmatis. Environ Health Perspect 112: 1508-1511 (2004) . doi:10.1289/ehp.7161 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 22 July 2004]

Address correspondence to R.A. Angus, Biology Department, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-1170 USA. Telephone: (205) 934-4799. Fax: (205) 975-6097. E-mail: raangus@uab.edu

This work was supported in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through grant R826130 (R.A.A.) and by National Institutes of Health Public Health Service grant HD16910 (E.M.W.) .

This report has not been subjected to government agency approval required for peer and policy review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the agency, and thus no official endorsement should be inferred.

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 5 April 2004 ; accepted 22 July 2004.