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Chaotropic effects on 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene uptake by wheat (Triticum aestivum)

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Abstract

Previous research in our laboratory investigated the effectiveness of a common agrochemical, urea used as a chaotropic agent to facilitate 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) removal by vetiver grass (Vetiveria zizanioides L.). Chaotropic agents disrupt water structure, increasing solubilization of hydrophobic compounds (TNT), and enhancing plant TNT uptake. Our findings showed that urea significantly enhanced TNT uptake kinetics by vetiver. We hypothesized that the beneficial effect of urea on the overall TNT uptake by vetiver grass was not plant-specific. We explored this hypothesis by testing the ability of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in removing TNT from aqueous media in the presence of urea. Results showed that untreated (no urea) wheat exhibited a slow, kinetically limited TNT uptake that was nearly half of the urea-treated wheat TNT capacity (250 mg kg−1). Chaotropic effects of urea were illustrated by the significant (P < 0.001) increase in the TNT second-order reaction rate constants over those of the untreated (no urea) controls. Plant TNT speciation showed that TNT and several of its metabolites were detected in both root and shoot compartments of the plant, allowing for 110 and 36% recovery for the untreated and 0.1% urea treated plants. The lower % recovery of the urea-treated plants was attributed to a number of unknown polar TNT metabolites.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Geochemistry Laboratory, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX, 78249, USA

    Konstantinos C. Makris, Rupali Datta, Dibyendu Sarkar, Kabindra M. Shakya, Devanand Pachanoor & Padmini Das

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  1. Konstantinos C. Makris
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  2. Rupali Datta
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  3. Dibyendu Sarkar
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  4. Kabindra M. Shakya
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  5. Devanand Pachanoor
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  6. Padmini Das
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Correspondence to Konstantinos C. Makris.

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Responsible Editor: Hans Lambers.

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Makris, K.C., Datta, R., Sarkar, D. et al. Chaotropic effects on 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene uptake by wheat (Triticum aestivum). Plant Soil 295, 229–237 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-007-9278-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-007-9278-5

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