Oxidation of triphenylarsine to triphenylarsineoxide by Trichoderma harzianum and other fungi

Arsenic resistant strains of bacteria and fungi were isolated from soil contaminated by chemical warfare agents. Until now, no metabolic products of microbial attack against the phenyl residues of the model substrate triphenylarsine (TP) were found if it was incubated together with these strains in liquid culture assays. However, one of the isolated fungi, Trichoderma harzianum As 11, was found to oxidize TP to triphenylarsineoxide (TPO). The yeast Trichosporon mucoides SBUG 801 and the white-rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium were also able to oxidize the As(III) in TP. In addition, P. chrysosporium transformed phenylarsineoxide (PAO) to phenylarsonic acid (PAA) under O2-atmosphere. By means of a respirometer system, the oxidation of TP by T. harzianum As 11 was confirmed by a significantly higher consumption of oxygen in the presence of these compounds. HPLC analysis of the oxidation products TPO and PAA in the medium of the assays provided evidence for the transfer reaction of As(III) to As(V) in organic bonds. The oxidation products TPO and PAA are more hydrophilic than TP and PAO. Therefore, it was concluded that particular fungi contribute to the mobilization of arsenic in soil contaminated by chemical warfare agents.     

Carbon isotope fractionation during abiotic reductive dehalogenation of trichloroethene (TCE)

Dehalogenation of trichloroethene (TCE) in the aqueous phase, either on palladium catalysts with hydrogen as the reductant or on metallic iron, was associated with strong changes in delta13C. In general, the delta13C of product phases were more negative than those of the parent compound and were enriched with time and fraction of TCE remaining. For dehalogenation with iron, the delta13C of TCE and products varied from -42/1000 to +5/1000. For the palladium experiments, the final product, ethane, reached the initial delta13C of TCE at completion of the dehalogenation reaction. During dehalogenation, the carbon isotope fractionation between TCE and product phases was not constant. The variation in delta13C of TCE and products offers a new monitoring tool that operates independently of the initial concentration of pollutants for abiotic degradation processes of TCE in the subsurface, and may be useful for evaluation of remediation efficiency.     

Fate of seven pesticides in an aerobic aquifer studied in column experiments

The fate of selected pesticides (bentazone, isoproturon, DNOC, MCPP, dichlorprop and 2,4-D) and a metabolite (2,6-dichlorobenzamide (BAM)) was investigated under aerobic conditions in column experiments using aquifer material and low concentrations of pesticides (approximately 25 microg/l). A solute transport model accounting for kinetic sorption and degradation was used to estimate sorption and degradation parameters. Isoproturon and DNOC were significantly retarded by sorption, whereas the retardation of the phenoxy acids (MCPP, 2,4-D and dichlorprop), BAM and bentazone was very low. After lag periods of 16-33 days for the phenoxy acids and 80 days for DNOC, these pesticides were degraded quickly with 0.-order rate constants of 1.3-2.6 microg/l/day. None of the most probable degradation products were detected.     

Mycotoxins of Aspergillus fumigatus in pure culture and in native bioaerosols from compost facilities

Exposure to secondary metabolites of airborne fungi in waste handling facilities is discussed in regard to potential toxic impacts on human health. The relevance of mycotoxins has been intensely studied in connection with contamination of food and feed. Toxic secondary metabolites are expected to be present in airborne spores, but exposure to mycotoxins in bioaerosols has not been studied sufficiently. Aspergillus fumigatus is one of the most frequent species in the air of compost plants. A wide range of secondary metabolites was found in pure cultures of freshly isolated strains of A. fumigatus. Tryptoquivaline, a compound with tremorgenic properties, and trypacidin, for which no toxic properties are described, were found in native bioaerosols in a compost facility. The highly toxic metabolites gliotoxin and verruculogen were not found in the bioaerosols.     

Identifikation der kfz-bürtigen Schadstoffbelastung mit Hilfe der Verh?ltnisse der stabilen Isotope von Kohlenstoff und Schwefel

Zusammenfassung  Reifen-, Ru?-, Motoren?l-, Asphalt-, Plastik- und Lackproben aus dem Stra?enverkehr wurden auf ihre Kohlenstoff- und Schwefel-isotopenverh?ltnisse mit dem Ziel untersucht, die Frage zu beant-worten, ob diese Isotopenverh?ltnisse als Indikatoren für die Belastungssituation und die Schadstoffquellen bei der Untersuchung von stra?ennahen B?den eingesetzt werden k?nnen. Die δ¹¹C-Werte der technischen Substrate lagen zwischen-30‰ und-18‰ relativ zum PDB-Standard, Dabei zeigte sich aufgrund der unterschiedlichen Herstellungsverfahren eine deutliche Abgrenzung der Substrate untereinander. Asphalt hatte Werte zwischen-23 und-18‰, Ru? zwischen -27 und -22‰ Die Ru?proben unterschieden sich je nach Art des verwendeten Kraftstoffs. Plastik, Lack und Motor?le zeigten ?hnliche δ¹³C-Werte, die zwischen-30 und-27‰ lagen. Reifen haben relativ konstante δ¹³C-Werte um -26‰ Der Einflu? des Stra?enverkehrs auf die δ¹³C-Werte im Stra?ensediment und in stra?ennahen B?den konnte anhand verschiedener Kohlenstoffspezies an einem Transekt an einer Landstra?e aufgezeigt werden. Ein Vergleich mit verkehrstypischen Schwermetallemissionen ergab bei einzelnen Kohlenstoffspezies einen ?hnlichen Verlauf der Schwermetallkonzentrationen und der δ¹³C-Werte. Die δ³⁴S-Werte lagen zwischen -6 und +8‰ relativ zum CDT-Standard. Eine Abgrenzung der Substrate in ihren δ¹⁴S-Werten war hierbei nicht m?glich.      

Absch?tzung der Quecksilberexposition

Zusammenfassung  Ein quecksilberkontaminierter Altstandort dient als Beispiel für eine umweltmedizinische Beurteilung der Belastung der im Umfeld wohnenden Personen durch Quecksilberimmissionen. Dabei wird die innere Exposition für sieben verschiedene Altersgruppen bezüglich der KontaktmedienBoden, Luft undNahrungsmittel anhand von konventionell festgelegten Szenarien abgesch?tzt und ein Vergleich mit den epidemiologischen Ergebnissen eines Humanmonitorings angestrebt. Die standortspezifisch und pfadspezifisch durchgeführte Expositionsabsch?tzung stützt sich auf cine Vielzahl von unterschiedlichen Probenehmern sowie auf über mehrere Jahre durchgeführte Konzentrationsmessungen in den aufnahmerelevanten Kompartimenten. Sowohl die Berechnungen als auch die epidemiologischen Untersuchungen zeigen eine leichte Erh?hung der Quecksilberexposition, gemessen an strengen Richtwerten.      

Modelling stomatal responses of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Turbo) to ozone and different levels of water supply

Spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Turbo) was exposed to different levels of ozone and water supply in open-top chambers in 1991. Air was charcoal filtered (CF), non-filtered (NF) and CF plus proportional addition of ambient or twice ambient ozone (CF1, CF2). Seasonal means of O(3), taken over 24 h, were 2.3, 20.6, 17.3, and 34.5 nl litre(-1) for CF, NF, CF1 and CF2 treatments, respectively. A split-plot design was used to obtain two levels of water supply: one-half of the pots was irrigated sufficiently not to show any symptoms of drought stress; the others were exposed to low water supply and received 50% of these amounts. Using a steady-state porometer approximately 800 measurements of stomatal conductance (g(s)) were made on flag leaves from 68 to 106 days after sowing. The measurements yielded only small differences of maximum conductance between the two levels of water supply. Therefore, low water supply did not protect wheat plants against ozone injury via reduced stomatal uptake in this experiment. To describe the effects of environmental variables on the stomatal behaviour, boundary-line analysis and non-linear regression analysis were used. Besides microclimatic parameters, the ozone dose of flag leaves was introduced as an independent variable affecting stomatal aperture. A well-defined boundary line for ozone dose was found, suggesting that increasing ozone dose caused stomatal closure in wheat flag leaves. But at high ozone doses, co-acting senescence seems also responsible for the decrease in stomatal conductance. A multiplicative boundary-line model was used to predict stomatal conductance from combinations of environmental variables. In the test carried out with the measurements of stomatal conductance, the model accounted only for 40% of the variation of g(s). Generalized stomatal response patterns of the herbaceous growth form, the dependence of the variables' age and ozone dose and the lack of an important factor influencing stomatal response (water status of the plant) in the model, are suggested as explanations of the poor results of the test.