Qaim Mehdi a PhD candidate, at the Center for Environmental and Human Toxicology at UF, along with other scientists has published an article addressing the issue of possible maternal transfer of PFAS to the shark embryo during gestation. This study builds upon the previous findings, where female sharks exhibited lower PFAS levels compared to males. These results led the team to hypothesize that female sharks may transfer PFAS to their embryos, potentially accounting for the observed differences. Here Qaim and his team found that factors like reproductive mode, litter size, and PFAS protein-binding affinity, all shape how these chemicals accumulate in developing embryonic tissues.
Learn More Here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.5c03114
Last year Qaim was the main author on another article investigating species-specific profiles of PFAS in costal sharks along the South Atlantic Bight of the US. Qaim and team explored benthic sharks carry higher PFAS compared to pelagic sharks. In addition, they uncovered that female sharks were showing relatively lower PFAS levels than males potentially maternal transfer was occurring in adult females.
Learn More Here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171758
