Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Jun 10;9(6):e99239.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099239. eCollection 2014.

The combined toxic and genotoxic effects of Cd and As to plant bioindicator Trifolium repens L

Alessandra Ghiani  1 , Pietro Fumagalli  1 , Tho Nguyen Van  1 , Rodolfo Gentili  1 , Sandra Citterio  1
Affiliations

The combined toxic and genotoxic effects of Cd and As to plant bioindicator Trifolium repens L

Alessandra Ghiani et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

This study was undertaken to investigate combined toxic and genotoxic effects of cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As) on white clover, a pollutant sensitive plant frequently used as environmental bioindicator. Plants were exposed to soil spiked with increasing concentrations of cadmium sulfate (20, 40 and 60 mg Kg-1) or sodium arsenite (5, 10 and 20 mg Kg-1) as well as with their combinations. Metal(loid) bioavailability was assessed after soil contamination, whereas plant growth, metal(loid) concentration in plant organs and DNA damage were measured at the end of plant exposition. Results showed that individual and joint toxicity and genotoxicity were related to the concentration of Cd and As measured in plant organs, and that As concentration was the most relevant variable. Joint effects on plant growth were additive or synergistic, whereas joint genotoxic effects were additive or antagonistic. The interaction between Cd and As occurred at both soil and plant level. In soil the presence of As limited the bioavailability of Cd, whereas the presence of Cd increased the bioavailability of As. Nevertheless only As biovailability determined the amount of As absorbed by plants. The amount of Cd absorbed by plant was not linearly correlated with the fraction of bioavailable Cd in soil suggesting the involvement of additional factors, such as plant uptake mechanisms. These results reveal that the simultaneous presence in soil of Cd and As, although producing an additive or synergistic toxic effect on Trifolium repens L. growth, generates a lower DNA damage.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Effect of metal(loid) stress on T. repens growth, measured as dry weight (DW).
Data are the mean of 30 measurements from single plants per each treatment. The asterisk (*) indicates statistically significant differences with respect to the control (ANOVA and Dunnet test; P<0.05).
Figure 2
Figure 2. Metal(loid) total content (µg) in T. repens plants after exposition.
Mean total amount of Cd and As accumulated in plant organs during exposition, was calculated for each treatment by multiplying the metal(loid) concentration, determined by AAS in root and shoot, with the correspondent organ dry weight. Uppercase letters represent significant differences with the correspondent concentration of Cd control (P<0.05); Lowercase letters represent significant differences with the correspondent concentration of As control (P<0.05).
Figure 3
Figure 3. Analysis of the percentage of polymorphism (P%  =  number of polymorphic loci/number of total loci) detected by RAPD in DNA from T. repens plants exposed to increasing concentrations of Cd. Root and Shoot mean percentages ± SD for each treatment are reported.
The asterisk and circle show statistically significant differences with respect to the control (ANOVA and Dunnet test; P<0.05).
Figure 4
Figure 4. RDA analysis showing the relationship between the metal(loid) effects on plant growth (DW_PL) and DNA sequence (Pol_PL) and the following variables: total content of metal(loid)s in plant (TOT_Cd_PL and TOT_As_PL), concentration of metal(loid)s in plant ([Cd]_PL and [As]_PL).
* Statistically different (P<0.05).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Heger TJ, Imfeld G, Mitchell EAD (2012) Special issue on “Bioindication in soil ecosystems”: Editorial note. Eur J Soil Biol 49: 1–4 10.1016/j.ejsobi.2012.02.001 - DOI
    1. Piraino F, Aina R, Palin L, Prato N, Sgorbati S, et al. (2006) Air quality biomonitoring: Assessment of air pollution genotoxicity in the Province of Novara (North Italy) by using Trifolium repens L. and molecular markers. Sci Total Environ 372: 350–359 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2006.09.009 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zhou QX, Zhang QR, Liang JD (2006) Toxic effects of acetochlor and methamidops on earthworm Eisenia fetida in Phaeozem, Northeast China. J Environ Sci 18: 741–745. - PubMed
    1. Liu XL, Zhang SZ (2007) Intraspecific differences in effects of co-contamination of cadmium and arsenate on early seedling growth and metal uptake by wheat. J E S 19 (10): 1221–1227 10.1016/S1001-0742(07)60199-5 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wang G, Fowler BA (2008) Roles of biomarkers in evaluating interactions among mixtures of lead, cadmium and arsenic, Toxicol Appl Pharm. 233: 92–99 10.1016/j.taap.2008.01.017 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of University, Research, Science and Technology and Italian Lombardy Region (Project: Soil mapping). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
-