Responses of seeds of typical Brassica crops to tetracycline stress: Sensitivity difference and source analysis

Yuan Luo; Jie Liang; Guangming Zeng; Xiaodong Li; Ming Chen; Longbo Jiang; Wenle Xing; Ning Tang

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2019.109597

Responses of seeds of typical Brassica crops to tetracycline stress: Sensitivity difference and source analysis

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2019 Nov 30:184:109597. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2019.109597. Epub 2019 Aug 26.

Authors

Yuan Luo¹, Jie Liang², Guangming Zeng³, Xiaodong Li¹, Ming Chen¹, Longbo Jiang¹, Wenle Xing¹, Ning Tang¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, China.
² College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, China. Electronic address: liangjie@hnu.edu.cn.
³ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, China. Electronic address: zgming@hnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 31465956
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2019.109597

Abstract

Antibiotics can induce adverse effects on plants. Brassica crop seeds, for their advantages, are used widely in seed germination test to investigate phytotoxicity of substances. However, their performances on evaluating antibiotics remain to be studied to select sensitive species for control of potential risks. In this work, common species of Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L.), edible rape (Brassica napus L.), and cabbage (Brassica oleracea L.) with three cultivars each were selected to compare and analyze the sensitivity difference of their seeds to tetracycline (TC) stress. Results showed that the ratio of axis to cotyledon (RAC) by fresh weight was an alternative endpoint besides radicle length (RL) in the test. The species sensitivity distribution (SSD) based on the effective concentrations causing x% inhibition (EC_x) in RL of seeds exposed to TC was applied to compare the sensitivity of seeds and estimate the hazardous concentration for x% species (HC_x). From the species-dependent sensitivity and the sensitivity difference of cultivars in the same species of seeds to TC, the performance of Chinese cabbage was the best in the study. The sensitivity of seeds to TC could be evaluated by EC₂₀ related to seed physical traits and germination indices, while the extent of seeds affected by TC could be evaluated by EC₅₀ related to the composition of seed storage reserves. We recommended that it was a new idea to analyze responses of different seeds to TC at large scale according to seed innate characteristics.

Keywords: Brassica crop; Phytotoxicity; Seed germination; Species sensitivity distribution; Storage reserves; Tetracycline.

Publication types

Comparative Study

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents / toxicity*
Brassica / classification
Brassica / drug effects*
Brassica / growth & development
Germination / drug effects
Seeds / classification
Seeds / drug effects
Seeds / growth & development
Species Specificity
Tetracycline / toxicity*

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Tetracycline