Report on the fifth meeting of INRA’s national network of ecotoxicologists,ECOTOX

The fifth meeting of INRA’s national network of ecotoxicologists took place on 25 to 27 November 2014 in Biarritz, France. The main aim of the meeting was to bring together ecotoxicologists from INRA and associated partners, providing them ample opportunity to share and discuss their latest scientific results as well as the national policy of research in ecotoxicology and to precise perspectives for the network.     

Isolation and characterization of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bradyrhizobium</Emphasis> sp. SR1 degrading two β-triketone herbicides

In this study, a bacterial strain able to use sulcotrione, a β-triketone herbicide, as sole source of carbon and energy was isolated from soil samples previously treated with this herbicide. Phylogenetic study based on16S rRNA gene sequence showed that the isolate has 100 % of similarity with several Bradyrhizobium and was accordingly designated as Bradyrhizobium sp. SR1. Plasmid profiling revealed the presence of a large plasmid (>50 kb) in SR1 not cured under nonselective conditions. Its transfer to Escherichia coli by electroporation failed to induce β-triketone degrading capacity, suggesting that degrading genes possibly located on this plasmid cannot be expressed in E. coli or that they are not plasmid borne. The evaluation of the SR1 ability to degrade various synthetic (mesotrione and tembotrione) and natural (leptospermone) triketones showed that this strain was also able to degrade mesotrione. Although SR1 was able to entirely dissipate both herbicides, degradation rate of sulcotrione was ten times higher than that of mesotrione, showing a greater affinity of degrading-enzyme system to sulcotrione. Degradation pathway of sulcotrione involved the formation of 2-chloro-4-mesylbenzoic acid (CMBA), previously identified in sulcotrione degradation, and of a new metabolite identified as hydroxy-sulcotrione. Mesotrione degradation pathway leads to the accumulation of 4-methylsulfonyl-2-nitrobenzoic acid (MNBA) and 2-amino-4 methylsulfonylbenzoic acid (AMBA), two well-known metabolites of this herbicide. Along with the dissipation of β-triketones, one could observe the decrease in 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD) inhibition, indicating that toxicity was due to parent molecules, and not to the formed metabolites. This is the first report of the isolation of bacterial strain able to transform two β-triketones.     

Academic expertise in assisting private companies in the fields of environment and environmental toxicology: the role of individual expertise

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The scientific knowledge produced by academic research can be valued in all sectors of human activity, including private sector. The ROVALTAIN...     

Impact of repeated irrigation of lettuce cultures with municipal wastewater on soil bacterial community diversity and composition

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The effect of wastewater irrigation on the diversity and composition of bacterial communities of soil mesocosms planted with lettuces was studied over...     

Detection and quantification of chlordecone in contaminated soils from the French West Indies by GC-MS using the 13C10-chlordecone stable isotope as a tracer

Chlordecone is an organochlorine insecticide that has been widely used to control banana weevil in the French West Indies. As a result of this intense use, up to 20,000 ha are contaminated by this insecticide in the French West Indies, and this causes environmental damage and health problems. A scenario of exposure was drawn by French authorities, based on land usage records. Many efforts have been made to monitor the occurrence of chlordecone and its main metabolites using different analytical methods, including GC, GC/MS, LC/MS, and NIRS. Although these different methods allow for the detection and quantification of chlordecone from soils, none of them estimate the bottleneck caused by extraction of this organochlorine from soils with high adsorption ability. In this study, we used ¹³C₁₀-chlordecone as a tracer to estimate chlordecone extraction yield and to quantify chlordecone in soil extracts based on the ¹³C/¹²C isotope dilution. We report the optimization of ¹³C₁₀-chlordecone extraction from an Andosol. The method was found to be linear from 0.118 to 43 mg kg^?1 in the Andosol, with an instrumental detection limit estimated at 8.84 μg kg^?1. This method showed that chlordecone ranged from 35.4 down to 0.18 mg kg^?1 in Andosol, Nitisol, Ferralsol, and Fluvisol soil types. Traces of the metabolite β-monohydrochlordecone were detected in the Andosol, Nitisol, and Ferralsol soil samples. This last result indicates that this method could be useful to monitor the fate of chlordecone in soils of the French West Indies.     

Sucrose amendment enhances phytoaccumulation of the herbicide atrazine in Arabidopsis thaliana

Growth in the presence of sucrose was shown to confer to Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress or mustard weed) seedlings, under conditions of in vitro culture, a high level of tolerance to the herbicide atrazine and to other photosynthesis inhibitors. This tolerance was associated with root-to-shoot transfer and accumulation of atrazine in shoots, which resulted in significant decrease of herbicide levels in the growth medium. In soil microcosms, application of exogenous sucrose was found to confer tolerance and capacity to accumulate atrazine in Arabidopsis thaliana plants grown on atrazine-contaminated soil, and resulted in enhanced decontamination of the soil. Application of sucrose to plants grown on herbicide-polluted soil, which increases plant tolerance and xenobiotic absorption, thus appears to be potentially useful for phytoremediation.