. 2009 Sep 23;118(1):20–32. doi: 10.1289/ehp.0901164

Table 6.

Summary of the effects of atrazine on gonadal function.

Taxon, species	End point	Effect direction	Conc where effect was observed (μg/L)	Conc tested (μg/L)	Atrazine grade	Experiment type	Exposure duration	Reference
Testicular cell types
Frog
R. clamitans	Proportion of juvenile males with > 50% tubules containing spermatids and spermatozoa	Lower at agricultural site with highest atrazine concentrations	Range of medians, 0.068–0.78	ND–3.13^a	Comm	FS	Unknown	McDaniel et al. 2008 ^a
R. pipiens	Proportion of juvenile males with > 50% tubules containing spermatids and spermatozoa	Higher at agricultural site with highest atrazine concentrations	0.342 (mean of median concentrations)	ND–3.13^a	Comm	FS	Unknown	McDaniel et al. 2008 ^a

Fish
P. promelas	Proportion of primary spermatogonia	↑	25, 250	25, 250	Test	FT	21 days	U.S. EPA 2005
P. promelas	Proportion of secondary spermatogonia	Reduced	25, 250	25, 250	Test	FT	21 days	U.S. EPA 2005

Sex hormone concentrations
Frog
X. laevis	Testosterone in adult males	↓	25	25	Tech	SR	46 days	Hayes et al. 2002 ^b
X. laevis	Testosterone in adult males	ND	–	10, 100	Tech	SR	48 days	Hecker et al. 2005a
X. laevis	Estradiol in adult males	ND	–	10, 100	Tech	SR	48 days	Hecker et al. 2005a
X. laevis	Estradiol in adult males	ND	–	1, 25, 250	Tech	SR	36 days	Hecker et al. 2005b
X. laevis	Testosterone in adult males	↓	250	1, 25, 250	Tech	SR	36 days	Hecker et al. 2005b
X. laevis	Testosterone in females	↓ at agricultural sites, negatively correlated with concentration of atrazine and breakdown product	< 0.1–4.14	< 0.1–4.14	Comm	FS	Unknown	Hecker et al. 2004
X. laevis	Testosterone in males	Negatively correlated with diamino-chlorotriazine concentration (a product of atrazine breakdown)	< 0.1–4.14	< 0.1–4.14	Comm	FS	Unknown	Hecker et al. 2004
X. laevis	Estradiol in females	↓ at agricultural sites, negatively correlated with conc of atrazine and breakdown product	< 0.1–4.14	< 0.1–4.14	Comm	FS	Unknown	Hecker et al. 2004
R. pipiens	Testosterone in juvenile males (2003)	↓ at agricultural sites	Range of medians, 0.380–0.780	ND–3.13^a	Comm	FS	Unknown	McDaniel et al. 2008 ^a
R. pipiens	Testosterone in juvenile males (2003)	Negatively correlated with atrazine concentration	ND–3.13	ND–3.13^a	Comm	FS	Unknown	McDaniel et al. 2008 ^a,^c
R. pipiens	11-Ketotestosterone in juvenile males (2003)	Negatively correlated with atrazine concentration	ND–3.13	ND–3.13^a	Comm	FS	Unknown	McDaniel et al. 2008 ^a,^c
R. pipiens	Testosterone in adult females (2003)	Negatively correlated with atrazine concentration	ND–3.13	ND–3.13^a	Comm	FS	Unknown	McDaniel et al. 2008 ^a,^c
R. clamitans	11-Ketotestosterone to testosterone ratio in adult females (late summer Aug–Sep 2002)	↑ at agricultural sites	Agricultural sites ranged from ND to 250	ND–250	Comm	FS	Unknown	Murphy et al. 2006b ^d
R. clamitans	11-Ketotestosterone to testosterone ratio in adult males (late summer Aug–Sep 2002)	↑ at agricultural sites	Agricultural sites ranged from ND to 250	ND–250	Comm	FS	Unknown	Murphy et al. 2006b ^d
R. clamitans	11-Ketotestosterone to testosterone ratio in adult males (early summer May 2003)	↑ at agricultural sites	Agricultural sites ranged from ND to 0.73	ND–250	Comm	FS	Unknown	Murphy et al. 2006b ^d
R. clamitans	Estradiol to testosterone ratio in adult females (late summer Aug–Sep 2002)	↑ at agricultural sites	Agricultural sites ranged from ND to 250	ND–250	Comm	FS	Unknown	Murphy et al. 2006b ^d
R. clamitans	Estradiol to testosterone ratio in adult males (Late summer Aug–Sep 2002)	↑ at agricultural sites	Agricultural sites ranged from ND to 250	ND–250	Comm	FS	Unknown	Murphy et al. 2006b ^d
R. clamitans	Estradiol to testosterone ratio in adult males (early summer May 2003)	↓ at agricultural sites	Agricultural sites ranged from ND to 0.73	ND–250	Comm	FS	Unknown	Murphy et al. 2006b ^d
R. clamitans	Estradiol to testosterone ratio in juvenile males (Jul 2003)	↑ at agricultural sites	Agricultural sites ranged from ND to 0.73	ND–250	Comm	FS	Unknown	Murphy et al. 2006b ^d
R. clamitans	Testosterone in adult males (early summer May 2003)	↑ at agricultural sites	Agricultural sites ranged from ND to 0.73	ND–250	Comm	FS	Unknown	Murphy et al. 2006b ^d
R. clamitans	Testosterone in juvenile females (Jul 2003)	↑ at agricultural sites	Agricultural sites ranged from ND to 0.73	ND–250	Comm	FS	Unknown	Murphy et al. 2006b ^d
R. clamitans	Testosterone in juvenile males (Jul 2003)	↑ at agricultural sites^d	Agricultural sites ranged from ND to 0.73	ND–250	Comm	FS	Unknown	Murphy et al. 2006b ^d

Fish
P. promelas	Testosterone female	ND	–	25, 250	Tech	FT	21 days	U.S. EPA 2005
P. promelas	Estradiol female	Trend (up to a 44% ↓)	25, 250	25, 250	Tech	FT	21 days	U.S. EPA 2005 ^e
P. promelas	Testosterone male	Trend (up to a 31% ↓)	25, 250	25, 250	Tech	FT	21 days	U.S. EPA 2005 ^e
P. promelas	11-Ketotestosterone male	Trend (up to a 47% ↓)	25, 250	25, 250	Tech	FT	21 days	U.S. EPA 2005 ^e

Reproductive success
Salamander
A. barbouri	Proportion hatched and timing of hatching	ND	–	4, 40, 400	Tech	SR	37 days	Rohr et al. 2003
A. barbouri	Proportion hatched and timing of hatching	↓ and delayed hatching	400	4, 40, 400	Tech	SR	Mean of 52 days	Rohr et al. 2004

Frog
R. pipiens	Proportion hatched	ND	–	2,590–20,000	Tech	SR	10 days	Allran and Karasov 2001
R. clamitans	Proportion hatched	ND	–	2,590–20,001	Tech	SR	10 days	Allran and Karasov 2001
B. americanus	Proportion hatched	ND	–	2,590–20,002	Tech	SR	10 days	Allran and Karasov 2001

Fish
P. promelas	Eggs per spawning of exposed adults	Trend for a ↓	5	5, 50	Tech	SR	21 days	Bringolf et al. 2004 ^b
P. promelas	Number of spawnings of exposed adults	Trend for a ↓	50	5, 50	Tech	SR	21 days	Bringolf et al. 2004 ^b
P. promelas	Fertilization success of exposed adults	Trend for a ↓	50	5, 50	Tech	SR	21 days	Bringolf et al. 2004 ^b
P. promelas	Proportion hatched and larval development of offspring from exposed adults	ND	–	5, 50	Tech	SR	21 days	Bringolf et al. 2004 ^b
P. promelas	Egg production of exposed adults	ND	–	25, 250	Tech	FT	21 days	U.S. EPA 2005
P. promelas	Fertilization success of exposed adults	ND	–	25, 250	Tech	FT	21 days	U.S. EPA 2005
P. promelas	Proportion hatched and larval development of offspring from exposed adults	ND	–	25, 250	Tech	FT	21 days	U.S. EPA 2005

Abbreviations: ↓, decreased; ↑, increased; Comm, commercial; Conc, concentration; FS, field survey; FT, flow-through experiment; ND, not detected; SR, static renewal experiment, Tech, technical. Excluded studies are listed in Supplemental Material, Table S1 (doi:10.1289/ehp.0901164.S1).

Atrazine concentration for the nonagricultural reference site during 2003 was reported incorrectly; repeated attempts to contact the authors for clarification have not been forthcoming.

No test statistics or degrees of freedom were presented; however, means and variances were presented either in the text or in a figure of the article.

Authors reported no significant correlation between atrazine and sex hormones in their abstract when, in fact, these end points were negatively correlated; contrary to the authors’ conclusion, the negative correlations across sexes and age groups reported in their study are unlikely to occur because of a low sample size or sampling error.

Authors argued that differences in hormone levels between agricultural and nonagricultural sites cannot be due to atrazine because hormone concentrations do not correlate with atrazine concentration; however, they presented no statistics to support this claim.

Low samples sizes (7–8 fish) likely precluded detecting these considerable effects.