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Toxicity of atrazine and its bioaccumulation and biodegradation in a green microalga, Chlamydomonas mexicana

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Abstract

This study evaluated the toxicity of herbicide atrazine, along with its bioaccumulation and biodegradation in the green microalga Chlamydomonas mexicana. At low concentration (10 μg L−1), atrazine had no profound effect on the microalga, while higher concentrations (25, 50, and 100 μg L−1) imposed toxicity, leading to inhibition of cell growth and chlorophyll a accumulation by 22 %, 33 %, and 36 %, and 13 %, 24 %, and 27 %, respectively. Atrazine 96-h EC50 for C. mexicana was estimated to be 33 μg L−1. Microalga showed a capability to accumulate atrazine in the cell and to biodegrade the cell-accumulated atrazine resulting in 14–36 % atrazine degradation at 10–100 μg L−1. Increasing atrazine concentration decreased the total fatty acids (from 102 to 75 mg g−1) and increased the unsaturated fatty acid content in the microalga. Carbohydrate content increased gradually with the increase in atrazine concentration up to 15 %. This study shows that C. mexicana has the capability to degrade atrazine and can be employed for the remediation of atrazine-contaminated streams.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Yonsei University Research Fund of 2013, the Mid-career Researcher Program [National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant, 2013069183], the Small & Medium Business Administration (SMBA) grant C0103527 through the Academic-Industrial Common Technology Development Project, and the Eco-Innovation Project (Global-Top Project) of the Korea Ministry of Environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University, Wonju, 220-710, South Korea

    Akhil N. Kabra, Min-Kyu Ji & Byong-Hun Jeon

  2. Water Analysis and Research Center, Korea Institute of Water and Environment, Korea Water Resources Corp., Daejeon, 306-711, South Korea

    Jaewon Choi

  3. School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan, 609-735, South Korea

    Jung Rae Kim

  4. Department of Biochemistry, Shivaji University, Vidyanagar, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, 416004, India

    Sanjay P. Govindwar

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  1. Akhil N. Kabra
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Correspondence to Byong-Hun Jeon.

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Kabra, A.N., Ji, MK., Choi, J. et al. Toxicity of atrazine and its bioaccumulation and biodegradation in a green microalga, Chlamydomonas mexicana . Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 12270–12278 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3157-4

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