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Development of a biomarker for metal bioavailability: The lettuce fatty acid composition
Author(s) -
Guedard Marina Le,
Schraauwers Blandine,
Larrieu Isabelle,
Bessoule JeanJacques
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
environmental toxicology and chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1552-8618
pISSN - 0730-7268
DOI - 10.1897/07-277.1
Subject(s) - lactuca , bioavailability , biomarker , contamination , environmental chemistry , composition (language) , chemistry , germination , seedling , botany , biology , biochemistry , ecology , bioinformatics , linguistics , philosophy
Abstract Because Lactuca sativa L. is a plant widely used in ecotoxicological analyses, a study was developed to determine whether the fatty acid composition of lettuce leaves could be used as an additional biomarker of soil contamination by metals such as Pb, Cu, Zn, and Cd. Unlike seed germination or seedling growth, the fatty acid composition of lettuce leaves differed significantly between uncontaminated and field metal‐contaminated soils. Hence, this lipid biomarker might provide an early indication of a plant's exposure to metals and the potential bioavailability of metals, and could facilitate or strengthen the diagnosis of soil contamination. Not only is the experimental protocol cheap, rapid, and easy, but the values of the lipid biomarker are highly reproducible when seedlings are grown at the same light intensity. In addition, the values of the biomarker did not vary greatly when 14‐ to 18‐day‐old plants were analyzed and when slight differences were introduced in the experimental conditions used to determine the leaf fatty acid composition.