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The Response of Sarcodia suiae to Long-term Exposure of Arsenic (Arsenate): Growth, Morphology, and Arsenic Alterations

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Abstract

Long-term (20 days: 5 days interval) responses of Sarcodia suiae to high-tested As(V) concentration (125 and 250 μg L−1) under optimized condition significantly inhibited growth rate (GR) and caused noticeable depigmentation in algal morphology. Interestingly, S. suiae appears to have positive growth-promoting effects to 62.5 μg L−1 concentration exposure suggesting that S. suiae may have developed a coping strategy (i.e., adaptation, detoxification, and possibility on the analogous nature of arsenate and phosphate) resulting to tolerance noted by the obtained higher GR. Moreover, uptake of As(V), as confirmed by reduced concentrations, caused intracellular arsenic speciation in S. suiae, resulting in As(III) becoming the relatively dominant arsenic species and producing small amounts of methylated species (DMA > MMA) and arsenoribosides ((AsB); (AsC)), and results implied that long-term data lead to higher As accumulation with elevated concentration of major As species. The high levels of As(III) accumulated by S. suiae indicate a high tolerance of the alga to the more toxic iAs (As(III)) suggesting S. suiae may warrant its use as an As(III) phytoremediator. Similarly, the As(V) biotransformation of S. suiae in the present study was intracellular arsenate bioreduction and subsequent intracellular biomethylation in either short-term or long-term duration which can be regarded as a survival strategy over toxicity. The long-term data provide an improved understanding of the shortcomings of short-term studies and better interpretation of macroalgal cumulative behavior and As patterns.

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Abbreviations

As:

Arsenic

As(V):

Arsenate

As(III):

Arsenite

DMA:

Dimethylarsenic

MMA:

Monomethylarsonic

AsB:

Arsenobetaine

AsC:

Arsenocholine

iAs:

Inorganic arsenic

TAs:

Total arsenic

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the full support system given by the research team of Algal Cultivation and Biotechnology Laboratory (613) of the Aquaculture Department, National Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU). Likewise, we are thankful to the Traceability Certification and Inspection Center of the Department of Aquaculture, NTOU headed by Dr. Nan, Fan-Hua (Director), for accommodating our samples and providing the laboratory facilities. Their assistance made this study possible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aquaculture, National Taiwan Ocean University, 2 Pei-Ning Road, Keelung, 20224, Taiwan

    Mary Joy Halog Libatique, Meng-Chou Lee, Han-Yang Yeh & Fu-Jie Jhang

  2. Center of Excellence for Ocean Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, 2 Pei-Ning Road, Keelung, 20224, Taiwan

    Meng-Chou Lee

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  1. Mary Joy Halog Libatique
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Contributions

MJHL performed the experiments and wrote the draft of the manuscript. FJJ and HYY designed the experimental design and helped in the experiment. MCL provided the experiment resources, supervised the work, and reviewed the manuscript. All authors contributed to the interpretation of data, read, edit, and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Meng-Chou Lee.

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Libatique, M.J.H., Lee, MC., Yeh, HY. et al. The Response of Sarcodia suiae to Long-term Exposure of Arsenic (Arsenate): Growth, Morphology, and Arsenic Alterations. Water Air Soil Pollut 231, 212 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-020-04603-0

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