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Toxicological effects, mechanisms, and implied toxicity thresholds in the roots of Vicia faba L. seedlings grown in copper-contaminated soil

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Abstract

Copper (Cu) contamination has become a global concern because of industrial, agricultural, and other anthropogenic activities. In the present experiments, the toxicological effects, mechanisms, and potential toxicity thresholds were investigated in the roots of Vicia faba L. seedlings that were cultivated in Cu-amended soils (0, 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, and 600 mg kg−1) for 20 days, based on an analysis of the soil physicochemical properties, native Cu, available Cu, and root-enriched Cu contents. The superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and guaiacol peroxidase (POD) isozymes and activities, as well as glutathione (GSH) and heat shock protein 70 (HSP70), changed like biphasic dose-response curves, cooperating to control the redox homeostasis. The APX and POD enzymes exhibited enhanced activities and became H2O2 scavengers primarily when the catalase (CAT) activities tended to decrease. Endoprotease (EP) isozymes and activities might be enhanced to degrade carbonylated proteins and alleviate metabolic disturbance in the roots. Additionally, HSP70 may not be suitable as a biomarker for relatively higher soil Cu concentrations and relatively longer exposure times for the roots. As a result, the isozymes and activities of SOD, CAT, and EP, as well as GSH, can be adopted as the most sensitive biomarkers. The toxicity threshold is estimated as 0.76–1.21 mg kg−1 of available Cu in the soils or 25.04–36.65 μg Cu g−1 dry weights (DW) in the roots.

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Acknowledgments

We are especially grateful to the National Nature Science Foundations of China (No. 41101294 and 20877032), the Jiangsu Government Scholarship for Overseas Studies, the Program for Innovative Research Team in Huainan Normal University (CXTD2015002) and the Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse of China (grant No. PCRRF10020, PCRRF12014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Agricultural Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Xianghua Xu

  2. School of Biological Engineering, Huainan Normal University, Huainan, 232001, China

    Zhicheng Huang, Chengrun Wang, Li Zhong, Dongdong Li, Gaojian Zhang & Jian Shi

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Yuan Tian

  4. Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology (CEINT), Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Yuan Tian

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  1. Xianghua Xu
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  4. Li Zhong
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  5. Yuan Tian
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Correspondence to Chengrun Wang.

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Responsible editor: Zhihong Xu

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Xu, X., Huang, Z., Wang, C. et al. Toxicological effects, mechanisms, and implied toxicity thresholds in the roots of Vicia faba L. seedlings grown in copper-contaminated soil. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 13858–13869 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5073-7

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