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Abstract

A survey was conducted in the Uppanar estuary to scrutiny the levels of DNA and RNA from the selected tissues of the test fish Mugil cephalus. The test fish was collected periodically from three different stations (station 1, station 2 and station 3) for a period of one year. In the present study, a significant decrease (P<0.05) in the nucleic acid level, such as DNA and RNA was noticed in selected tissues such as brain, liver, kidney and gill of fish M. cephalus in the order of liver, gill, brain, kidney. Station wise as well as season wise results revealed that, the maximum decrease in tissue DNA and RNA level was observed only in S2 during summer followed by post monsoon, pre monsoon and minimum decrease during monsoon. This may be because of this studied area (station 2) is subjected to increased pollution stresses, originating mainly from SIPCOT industrial areas, human activities such as disposal of agricultural, municipal, domestic and other wastes in substantial quantities.