SHEDDING LIGHT SOBRE A TOXICIDADE DE MISTURA DE POLUENTES NA BIOTA AQUÁTICA VEGETAL: UM ESTUDO ENVOLVENDO Allium cepa L.

Abstract

Although the toxicity of different pollutants (alone) is well portrayed in the literature, the exposure of the Allium cepa L. plant model to a “mix” of different classes of contaminants/pollutants had not yet been evaluated. Therefore, we evaluated the effects of exposure of Allium cepa L. to a “mix” of contaminants at environmental concentrations from predictive biomarkers of developmental and cytogenotoxic alterations. For this, the following groups were established: "control", "mix 1x" (composed of individuals exposed to 15 pollutants identified in surface water at environmental concentrations), "mix 1/4x" and "mix 1/2x" (concentrations 25 and 50 times lower than the 1x concentration, respectively). Our data demonstrated that the "mix" of contaminants caused cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and damage to the physiological quality in germination and early development of A. cepa L. seedlings, due to cell damage, behavioral dysfunctions in the chromosomes of meristematic cells in A. cepa L. roots at all times of exposure and physiological damage observed in A. cepa L. seeds exposed to the “mix” of contaminants at relevant environmental concentrations. Therefore, our "shedding light" study on the toxicity of the pollutants mix on aquatic plant biota, further studies should be continued to expand our knowledge of the magnitude of impacts observed at the population and ecosystem level.