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Single and combined exposure of broad bean (Vicia faba) to PFOS and environmental microplastics: Effect at the morphological, metabolomics and PFOS uptake levels
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Researchers grew broad beans in soil contaminated with microplastics and the industrial chemical PFOS, both alone and in combination, for 28 days. While each contaminant individually reduced shoot growth, their combined presence unexpectedly increased biomass, and microplastics enhanced PFOS uptake into plant tissues by up to several fold. Metabolomic analysis revealed significant biochemical disruptions including oxidative stress and altered fatty acid and isoprenoid pathways, particularly under combined exposure.
Microplastics (MPs) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) are emerging pollutants that can co-occur in agricultural soils, but their combined impacts on crops are not yet fully understood. We investigated early-stage responses of broad bean (Vicia faba) grown for 28 days in greenhouse soil exposed to environmental MPs (50 mg kg⁻¹), PFOS (10 or 100 µg kg⁻¹), and their combinations. Targeted high-resolution mass spectrometry analyses quantified PFOS in plant tissues and glutathione redox status (GSH/GSSG), whereas untargeted metabolomics investigated global biochemical changes. Individually, MPs and PFOS reduced shoot length (29-33 % vs control). Conversely, biomass increased under co-exposure, indicating a distinct physiological adjustment. Noteworthy, PFOS accumulated dose-dependently and was enhanced by MPs (up to 6.92 ng g⁻¹ FW in shoots and 263.36 ng g⁻¹ FW in roots), evidencing MP-mediated modulation of PFOS bioavailability. Redox balance shifted toward oxidation: GSH/GSSG declined across treatments, especially in roots at high PFOS (-60 %). Metabolomics, followed by multivariate statistical analysis, successfully separated the control from the treated plants, with AMOPLS apportioning variance primarily to PFOS and the PFOS×MPs interaction. Discriminant metabolites in shoots highlighted a dose-related accumulation of isoprenoid and fatty-acid biosynthesis, stronger under MPs+high PFOS, while roots exhibited suppressed isoprenoids and enhanced phenylpropanoids at high co-exposure. Our results highlighted an MPs-PFOS interaction at the metabolome level, identifying MPs as dynamic modulators of PFOS uptake. Co-exposure elicits an emergent stress signature involving redox imbalance and a tissue-specific secondary metabolism allocation. Our data should be carefully considered concerning environmental PFOS contamination in the context of environmental microplastics.
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