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Population growth impairment of aliphatic alcohols to Tetrahymena
Author(s) -
Schultz T. Wayne,
SewardNagel Julie,
Foster Karen A.,
Tucker Vera A.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
environmental toxicology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.813
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1522-7278
pISSN - 1520-4081
DOI - 10.1002/tox.10145
Subject(s) - tetrahymena , tetrahymena pyriformis , population , biology , ecology , toxicology , environmental chemistry , chemistry , environmental health , medicine , biochemistry
The toxicity of a series of 120 aliphatic alcohols was evaluated using the Tetrahymena pyriformis population growth impairment assay. For tertiary propargylic alcohols; primary, secondary, and tertiary homopropargylic alcohols; allylic alcohols; and saturated alcohols, a statistically robust structure‐activity model was developed for toxicity data [log (IGC 50 −1 )] using the 1‐octanol/water partition coefficient (log K ow ) as the lone descriptor [log (IGC 50 ) −1 = 0.74 (log K ow ) − 1.73; n = 97; r 2 (adj.) = 0.933; r 2 (pred.) = 0.932; s = 0.298; F = 1328; Pr > F = 0.0001]. Analysis of data for the primary propargylic alcohols yielded a separate, high‐quality log K ow ‐dependent quantitative structure‐activity relationship (QSAR) [log (IGC 50 ) −1 = 0.65 (log K ow ) − 1.22; n = 10; r 2 (adj.) = 0.969; r 2 (pred.) = 0.964; s = 0.222; F = 254; Pr > F = 0.0001]. A comparison of the observed toxicity and that predicted by the first QSAR showed that the primary propargylic alcohols with log K ow values < 2.00 exhibited enhanced toxicity and that this increased toxicity was inversely related to hydrophobicity. In sharp contrast, analysis of the data for the secondary propargylic alcohols exhibited little relationship with log K ow ( r 2 = 0.339). Although the initial QSAR can be used to model the toxicity of any aliphatic alcohol for the T. pyriformis population growth impairment end point, the estimated potency would be underestimated for primary propargylic alcohols with log K ow values < 2.00. Moreover, estimates of toxic potency of secondary propargylic alcohols based on this QSAR should be viewed with limited confidence. The findings for β‐unsaturated alcohols in Tetrahymena were sharply different from that reported for fathead minnow acute mortality; this difference in toxicity is a result of a difference in the protocol used rather than in metabolism. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 19: 1–10, 2004.