The contamination of soils and water with copper (Cu) can compromise the crops production and quality. Fungicides containing Cu are widely and intensively used in viticulture contributing to environmental contamination and genotoxicity in Vitis vinifera L. Despite the difficulty in reproducing field conditions in the laboratory, hydroponic solutions enriched with Cu (1, 10, 25 and 50 μM) were used in forced V. vinifera cuttings to evaluate the DNA damage in leaves of four wine-producing varieties (‘Tinta Barroca’, ‘Tinto Cão’, ‘Malvasia Fina’ and ‘Viosinho’). Alkaline comet assay followed by fluorescence in situ hybridisation (Comet-FISH) was performed with the 45S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and telomeric [(TTTAGGG)n] sequences as probes. This study aimed to evaluate the tolerance of the four varieties to different concentrations of Cu and to determine which genomic regions were more prone to DNA damage. The comet assay revealed comets of categories 0 to 4 in all varieties. The DNA damage increased significantly (p < 0.001) with the Cu concentration. ‘Tinto Cão’ appeared to be the most sensitive variety because it had the highest DNA damage increase in 50 μM Cu relative to the control. Comet-FISH was only performed on slides of the control and 50 μM Cu treatments. Comets of all varieties treated with 50 μM Cu showed rDNA hybridisation on the head, ‘halo’ and tail (category III), and their frequency was significantly higher than that of control. The frequency of category III comets hybridised with the telomeric probe was only significantly different from the control in ‘Malvasia Fina’ and ‘Tinta Barroca’. Comet-FISH revealed partial damage on rDNA and telomeric DNA in response to Cu but also in control, confirming the high sensitivity of these genomic regions to DNA fragmentation.
When the frenzied and irregular food-recruitment dances of bumblebees were first discovered, it was thought that they might
represent an evolutionary prototype to the honeybee waggle dance. It later emerged that the primary function of the bumblebee
dance was the distribution of an alerting pheromone. Here, we identify the chemical compounds of the bumblebee recruitment
pheromone and their behaviour effects. The presence of two monoterpenes and one sesquiterpene (eucalyptol, ocimene and farnesol)
in the nest airspace and in the tergal glands increases strongly during foraging. Of these, eucalyptol has the strongest recruitment
effect when a bee nest is experimentally exposed to it. Since honeybees use terpenes for marking food sources rather than
recruiting foragers inside the nest, this suggests independent evolutionary roots of food recruitment in these two groups
of bees. 相似文献
Goal, Scope and Background The presence or absence of vegetation can condition sediment characteristics. The main aim of this work was to investigate
the influence of the sea rush Juncus maritimus on metal (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) availability to organisms living
on or in estuarine sediments, from Douro River (NW Portugal), by comparing the characteristics and chemical behaviour of rhizosediments
(collected within the plant assemblage) and those of sediment (collected around the plant). In order to evaluate whether and
how sediment characteristics condition the role of plants on metal availability, sandy and muddy sediments colonised by J.
maritimus were studied in parallel.
Methods Metal availability was estimated by enzymatic digestion with pepsin (ED), which may provide an estimate of metal availability
to organisms living at estuarine sediments. Nevertheless, since no consensus exists yet on the most suitable methodologies
to estimate metal bioavailability in sediments, two more conventional approaches, BCR sequential extraction (SE) and AVS/SEM
model, were also used, in parallel, and the information these approaches provided was compared with that provided by ED. Total-recoverable
metal contents were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry after sediment digestion using a high-pressure microwave
system.
Results and Discussion Plants could concentrate metals around its roots and rhizomes. In addition, they were capable of oxidizing (release of oxygen
by the roots) the anaerobic medium surrounding their roots in muddy sediment (reducing AVS). As sulphide oxidation renders
metals (Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) into more soluble forms, according to the AVS/SEM model, metals from muddy sites would be more
available in rhizosediment than in sediment. The SE approach led to a similar conclusion. Nevertheless, the results provided
by ED pointed at opposite conclusion, particularly for Cd and Zn, indicating less availability at rhizosediments than in the
surrounding sediment. ED results were interpreted as a consequence of an enrichment of the rhizosediment in organic ligands
exuded by the roots or liberated by dead plants. The effect of complexation of metals by organic compounds, which ED could
not decompose/dissolve, seemed to overcome that caused by sediment oxidation. In general, a comparison of the information
about metal availability by ED, SE, AVS/SEM, showed that it did not always match and in few cases it was even contradictory.
Conclusion and Outlook Therefore, a thorough evaluation of the metal availability in sediments requires a combination of different chemical approaches,
so as to take into consideration differences in ways of organism exposure (interstitial water and/or ingestion of sediment
particles).
- * The basis of this peer-reviewed paper is a presentation at the 9th FECS Conference on 'Chemistry and Environment', 29 August
to 1 September 2004, Bordeaux, France. 相似文献
Cadmium is a heavy metal, which, even at low concentrations, can be highly toxic to the growth and development of both plants and animals. Plant species vary extensively in their tolerance to excess cadmium in a growth medium and very few cadmium-tolerant species have been identified. In this study, tumbleweed plants (Salsola kali) grown in an agar-based medium with 20 mgl(-1) of Cd(II) did not show phytotoxicity, and their roots had the most biomass (4.5 mg) (P < 0.05) compared to the control plants (2.7 mg) as well as other treated plants. These plants accumulated 2696, 2075, and 2016 mg Cd kg(-1) of dry roots, stems, and leaves, respectively. The results suggest that there is no restricted cadmium movement in tumbleweed plants. In addition, the amount of Cd found in the dry leaf tissue suggests that tumbleweed could be considered as potential cadmium hyperaccumulating species. X-ray absorption spectroscopy studies demonstrated that in roots, cadmium was bound to oxygen while in stems and leaves, the metal was attached to oxygen and sulfur groups. This might imply that some small organic acids are responsible for Cd transport from roots to stems and leaves. In addition, it might be possible that the plant synthesizes phytochelatins in the stems, later coordinating the absorbed cadmium for transport and storage in cell structures. Thus, it is possible that in the leaves, Cd either exists as a Cd-phytochelatin complex or bound to cell wall structures. Current studies are being performed in order to elucidate the proposed hypothesis. 相似文献
The activity of fish monooxygenases has been extensively used as a monitoring tool to detect contamination of water bodies by cytochrome P450-inducing agents. In this study we evaluated the activities of ethoxy- (EROD), methoxy- (MROD) and pentoxy- (PROD) resorufin-O-dealkylases in the liver of Nile tilapias (Oreochromis niloticus) collected at the Guandu river, at a reference clean site (Lake 1) and at two other sampling sites (Lakes 2 and 3) in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Alkoxyresorufin-O-dealkylases were measured fluorimetrically in the hepatic S9 fraction. EROD (17.7-fold), MROD (14.2-fold) as well as PROD activities were considerably higher in tilapias from Guandu river. A moderate increase of EROD (5.0-fold) and MROD (5.4-fold) was also found in tilapias from Lake 3. These findings suggest that Guandu river watershed, the main source of urban drinking water supply in Rio de Janeiro, is polluted with CYP1A-inducing xenobiotics. Furthermore, we also found a good linear relationship between EROD and MROD, a finding that agrees with the hypothesis that the two reactions are catalysed by the same CYP1A isoform in O. niloticus. 相似文献
The Anguillid juvenile glass eel must deal with the osmoregulatory consequences of highly variable environmental salinities
on its recruitment migration from coastal to fresh waters. Changes in ionoregulatory parameters and branchial ion transport
protein [Na+/K+-ATPase, Na+:K+:2Cl− cotransporter (NKCC), cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) anion channel, V-type proton ATPase] expression (activities,
protein and/or mRNA level expression and/or cellular localization) in response to acclimation to a broad range of ionic strengths
[distilled water (DW) to hypersaline water (HSW; 150%) sea water (SW 32‰)] was studied. The estuarine glass eels were very
euryhaline and successfully acclimated to acute changes in environmental ionic strength from 50% SW, with high mortality only
observed in HSW (51%) and sublethal osmoregulatory indicators (whole body water content and sodium levels) disturbed at the
extremes (DW and HSW). Central to a high salinity acclimation were elevated branchial Na+/K+-ATPase, NKCC and CFTR expression. At lower salinity, Na+/K+-ATPase expression was maintained and NKCC and CFTR expressions were reduced. Branchial chloride cells increased in size up
to SW but decreased in HSW. During hypotonic disturbance (DW), no compensatory elevation in V-ATPase or Na+/K+-ATPase expression was observed. 相似文献
Besides some mammals and a few model organisms, the presence of genetic variation in ovary or gonad development at ages before that of reproduction has not been established for marine oviparous species nor has the correlation with reproductive traits at maturity. In this investigation, ovary development was evaluated for genetic variability in a full-sib family structured population of subadult shrimp. The numbers of each oocyte type that were present were counted, measured, and used to evaluate the following traits: total oocyte number, mean oocytes diameter, and ovary maturity (OM). The total ovary area was also measured for each female. Genetic variation was assessed through the estimation of the parameter ‘heritability’. The heritability (h2) of total number of oocytes was zero, but large heritability values were seen for mean oocytes diameter (h2=0.57±0.27) and OM (h2=0.71±0.26). Family means correlations between traits in subadults with traits measured in their full-sibs when adults (days to first spawn, total number of spawns, total fecundity, and fecundity at first spawn) indicated the existence of some significant associations between reproductive traits at the two ages. These findings point toward an early genetic determination of reproductive capacity in this crustacean. 相似文献
Environmental surveillance is an effective approach to investigate the circulation of human enteroviruses in the population. Enteroviruses E14, CVA9, E-6, E16, E20, E25, E13, and CVA24 were detected in sewage and a watercourse in central Argentina. E14 was the most frequent serotype and was found for the first time in environmental samples in our region. Phylogenetic and coalescence analyses showed at least two recent introduction events. 相似文献