Emily Pintilie defends her M.S. thesis on 2,4-D exposure in planarians

Congratulations to Emily Pintilie, who successfully defended her Master of Science thesis in Biological Sciences at Lynn University: Behavioral and Molecular Effects of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid Exposure in Planarians. Dr. Félix E. Rivera-Mariani served on her thesis committee alongside her advisors Dr. Cassandra S. Korte and Dr. Erika L. Doctor.

2,4-D is one of the most widely used herbicides in the world, and it has been associated with neurotoxic outcomes in vertebrates. Emily used the planarian Girardia dorotocephala, a freshwater flatworm with a well-characterized nervous system, regenerative capacity, and measurable behaviors, as a model to ask how the compound affects non-target aquatic organisms. She exposed worms to 0–100 mg/L of 2,4-D at multiple time points and measured nociceptive behaviors (scrunching, C-shapes, seizures), survival, phototaxis, and global DNA methylation.

Key findings:

• Higher concentrations of 2,4-D induced abnormal nociceptive behaviors and increased mortality.
• 2,4-D did not impair phototaxis, suggesting sensory-motor light processing was preserved.
• The study is, to our knowledge, the first to demonstrate concentration-dependent DNA methylation changes in G. dorotocephala, pointing to an epigenetic footprint of 2,4-D exposure.

Together these results show that an environmental toxicant can act on aquatic invertebrates at both behavioral and molecular levels, and they support planarians as a sensitive model for neurotoxicity and ecotoxicology research.

Emily earned her B.S. in Biology from Lynn in 2024 and her M.S. in 2026. She is now a Ph.D. student in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. The full thesis is available through Lynn University's SPIRAL repository.

• mentees
• thesis defense
• toxicology