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Mixture of Toxic Metals and Volatile Organic Compounds in a River Induces Cytotoxicity
Summary
Researchers found that water from the Atoyac River in Mexico exerts significant cytotoxic effects on Allium cepa root meristems, with toxic metals and volatile organic compounds negatively correlated with mitotic activity, confirming the genotoxic hazard posed by industrial and municipal wastewater discharge.
Pollution of aquatic ecosystems due to toxic mixtures is a worldwide problem associated with the increase of wastewater discharges that causes problems to human health and biodiversity. This study aims to evaluate the cytotoxic potential of water from the Atoyac River. Meristems of Allium cepa L. were exposed to water samples from the Atoyac River with different concentrations for 120 hours. Pearson correlation was used to investigate the relationship between contaminants and cytotoxicity. The results corroborated the cytotoxic effect of the mixture of agents such as toxic metals and volatile organic compounds found in all river sampling sites. The Allium cepa test showed decreased mitotic alterations in prophase and metaphase indices. There was a strong negative association between the concentration of toxic metals and volatile organic compounds and the cytotoxic effect. The observations of cytotoxic effects show that the contaminant mixture contains aneugenic agents which prevent the synthesis and fixation of fibers of the mitotic spindle to the kinetochore, which prevents the displacement of the chromosomes. This study shows the need to study the effects at the cellular and molecular level in heavily polluted rivers to prevent negative effects on exposed ecosystems and populations.
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