title: Identification and characterization of tebuconazole transformation products in soil by combining suspect screening and molecular typology.
abstract: Pesticides generate transformation products (TPs) when they are released into the environment. These TPs may be of ecotoxicological importance. Past studies have demonstrated how difficult it is to predict the occurrence of pesticide TPs and their environmental risk. The monitoring approaches mostly used in current regulatory frameworks target only known ecotoxicologically relevant TPs. Here, we present a novel combined approach which identifies and categorizes known and unknown pesticide TPs in soil by combining suspect screening time-of-flight mass spectrometry with in silico molecular typology. We used an empirical and theoretical pesticide TP library for compound identification by both non-target and target time-of-flight (tandem) mass spectrometry, followed by structural proposition through a molecular structure correlation program. In silico molecular typology was then used to group TPs according to common molecular descriptors and to indirectly elucidate their environmental parameters by analogy to known pesticide compounds with similar molecular descriptors. This approach was evaluated via the identification of TPs of the triazole fungicide tebuconazole occurring in soil during a field dissipation study. Overall, 22 empirical and 12 yet unknown TPs were detected, and categorized into three groups with defined environmental properties. This approach combining suspect screening time-of-flight mass spectrometry with molecular typology could be extended to other organic pollutants and used to rationalize the choice of TPs to be investigated towards a more comprehensive environmental risk assessment scheme.
authors.affiliation: INRA, Mixed Research Unit 1347 Agroecology, Dijon, France; Aeiforia srl, Spinoff Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Fidenza, Italy; Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Department of Agronomy and Environmental and Chemistry, Piacenza, Italy.
authors.forename: Veronika
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Storck
authors.affiliation: Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Department of Agronomy and Environmental and Chemistry, Piacenza, Italy. Electronic address: luigi.lucini@unicatt.it.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lucini
authors.affiliation: INRA, Mixed Research Unit 1402 ECOSYS, Thiverval-Grignon, France.
authors.forename: Laure
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mamy
authors.affiliation: Aeiforia srl, Spinoff Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Fidenza, Italy.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ferrari
authors.affiliation: University of Thessaly, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Larissa, Greece.
authors.forename: Evangelia S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Papadopoulou
authors.affiliation: University of Patras, Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, Agrinio, Greece.
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nikolaki
authors.affiliation: University of Thessaly, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Larissa, Greece.
authors.forename: Panagiotis A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Karas
authors.affiliation: INRA, Mixed Research Unit 1331 Toxalim, Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Remi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Servien
authors.affiliation: University of Thessaly, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Larissa, Greece.
authors.forename: Dimitrios G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Karpouzas
authors.affiliation: Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Department of Agronomy and Environmental and Chemistry, Piacenza, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trevisan
authors.affiliation: INRA, Mixed Research Unit 1402 ECOSYS, Thiverval-Grignon, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Benoit
authors.affiliation: INRA, Mixed Research Unit 1347 Agroecology, Dijon, France. Electronic address: fabrice.martin@dijon.inra.fr.
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martin-Laurent
mesh_terms: D001711:Biotransformation; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005659:Fungicides, Industrial / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry; D014230:Triazoles / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005659:Fungicides, Industrial; D012987:Soil; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D014230:Triazoles; C087114:tebuconazole
keywords: Environmental risk assessment; Molecular typology; Pesticide; Time-of-flight mass spectrometry; Transformation products