title: Enantioselective accumulation of chiral polychlorinated biphenyls in lotus plant (Nelumbonucifera spp.).
abstract: Enantioselective accumulation of chiral polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) 91, 95, 136, 149, 176 and 183 was investigated in lotus plants (Nelumbonucifera spp.) exposed to these chemicals via spiked sediment, to determine uptake and possible biotransformation for aquatic phytoremediation purposes. The concentrations of most PCBs were greatest in roots at 60 d (19.6 ± 1.51-70.6 ± 6.14 μg kg(-1)), but were greatest in stems and leaves at 120 d (25.3 ± 6.14-95.5 ± 19.4 μg kg(-1) and 17.4 ± 4.41-70.4 ± 10.4 μg kg(-1), respectively). Total amounts were greatest at 120 d and significantly higher in roots than those in stems and in leaves (1,457 ± 220-5,852 ± 735 ng, 237 ± 47.1-902 ± 184 ng and 202 ± 60.3-802 ± 90.2 ng, respectively), but represented less than 0.51% of the total mass of PCBs added to sediments, indicating that lotus plants were unlikely to remove appreciable amounts of PCBs from contaminated sediments. Racemic PCB residues in sediment indicate no enantioselective biodegradation by sedimentary microbial consortia over the entire experiment. Preferential accumulation of the (-)-enantiomers of PCBs 91, 95 and 136 were observed in roots, stems and leaves, but non-enantioselective accumulation was observed for PCBs 149, 176 and 183. These results indicate that aquatic plants can accumulate PCBs enantioselectively via root uptake, possibly by biotransformation within plant tissues as observed for terrestrial plants. This is also the first report to identify optical rotation of the atropisomers of PCBs 91 and 95.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Quality Standard & Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Key Laboratory of Agro-product Quality and Safety, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Key Laboratory of Agri-food Quality and Safety, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100081, China; State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Shouhui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Richardson College for the Environment, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg MB R3B 2E9, Canada.
authors.forename: Charles S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Institute of Quality Standard & Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Key Laboratory of Agro-product Quality and Safety, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Key Laboratory of Agri-food Quality and Safety, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100081, China. Electronic address: qiujing@caas.cn.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Quality Standard & Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Key Laboratory of Agro-product Quality and Safety, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Key Laboratory of Agri-food Quality and Safety, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100081, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Quality Standard & Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Key Laboratory of Agro-product Quality and Safety, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Key Laboratory of Agri-food Quality and Safety, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100081, China.
authors.forename: Tingting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chai
authors.affiliation: Institute of Quality Standard & Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Key Laboratory of Agro-product Quality and Safety, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Key Laboratory of Agri-food Quality and Safety, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100081, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Institute of Quality Standard & Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Key Laboratory of Agro-product Quality and Safety, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Key Laboratory of Agri-food Quality and Safety, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100081, China.
authors.forename: Shuming
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D005506:Food Contamination; D031652:Nelumbonaceae / Q000378:metabolism*; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls
keywords: Accumulation; Enantiomer; Lotus root; Polychlorinated biphenyls; Sediment