Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) is a persistent environmental pollutant. Exposure to PFOS has been associated with abnormal fetal development. The long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) has been showed to play a role in fetal growth restriction (FGR), preeclampsia (PE) and other pregnancy complications. Whether the lncRNA contributes to PFOS-induced toxicity in the placenta remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the function of lncRNA MEG3 and its derived miR-770 in PFOS-induced placental toxicity. Pregnant mice received gavage administration of different concentrations of PFOS (0.5, 2.5, and 12.5 mg/kg/day) from GD0 to GD17, and HTR-8/SVneo cells were treated with PFOS in the concentrations of 0, 10⁻¹, 1, 10 μM. We found that expression levels of miR-770 and its host gene MEG3 were reduced in mice placentas and HTR-8/SVneo cells with exposure of PFOS. A significant hypermethylation was observed at MEG3 promoter in placentas of mice gestational-treated with PFOS. We also confirmed that MEG3 and miR-770 overexpression alleviated the cell growth inhibition induced by PFOS. Furthermore, PTX3 (Pentraxin 3) was identified as the direct target of miR-770 and it was enhanced after PFOS exposure. In summary, our results suggested that MEG3 alleviate PFOS-induced placental cell inhibition through MEG3/miR-770/PTX3 axis.

Thallium, a highly toxic heavy metal and priority pollutant, has been widely reported to cause neurodevelopmental toxicity in animals. However, accessible epidemiological studies concerning the neurodevelopmental toxicity of early-life thallium exposure in humans are limited. In a prospective birth cohort including 2164 mother-child pairs, we explored the effect of prenatal serum thallium exposure on cognitive development among preschool-aged children born in Ma'anshan, Anhui, China. Serum thallium concentrations were measured in the first trimester, second trimester, third trimester, and cord blood by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Child cognitive development was appraised by the Chinese version of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV) at 4.5 years old. Multiple informants generalized estimating equations (GEEs) were fit to jointly estimate the association between the four repeated measurements of thallium concentrations and the preschool-aged children's cognitive test scores. After adjusting for potential confounders, the visual spatial index (VSI) was 1.45 points lower in the highest tertile of serum thallium during the first trimester than in the lowest tertile (p for trend = 0.04). Moreover, children in the highest tertile of serum thallium during the third trimester had a significantly lower full-scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) (β = −1.51, 95% CI: −2.68, −0.35), VSI (β = −1.79, 95% CI: −3.16, −0.42), fluid reasoning index (FRI) (β = −1.41, 95% CI: −2.73, −0.10), and processing speed index (PSI) (β = −1.47, 95% CI: −2.71, −0.24) scores than the children in the lowest tertile. When performing stratified analysis by child sex, the associations of first- and third-trimester thallium concentrations with cognitive test scores were more prominent in boys than in girls. Our findings revealed that maternal serum thallium exposure during the first and third trimesters, but not other periods, had detrimental effects on preschoolers' cognitive development, and these effects showed sex differences.

Due to worldwide production, sales and application, neonicotinoids dominate the global use of insecticides. While, neonicotinoids are considered as pinpoint neurotoxicants that impair cholinergic neurotransmission in pest insects, the sublethal effects on nontarget organisms and other neurotransmitters remain poorly understood. Thus, we investigated long-term neurological outcomes in the decomposer nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. In the adult roundworm the neonicotinoid thiacloprid impaired serotonergic and dopaminergic neuromuscular behaviors, while respective exposures to thiamethoxam showed no effects. Thiacloprid caused a concentration-dependent delay of the transition between swimming and crawling locomotion that is controlled by dopaminergic and serotonergic neurotransmission. Age-resolved analyses revealed that impairment of locomotion occurred in young as well as middle-aged worms. Treatment with exogenous serotonin rescued thiacloprid-induced swimming deficits in young worms, whereas additional exposure with silica nanoparticles enhanced the reduction of swimming behavior. Delay of forward locomotion was partly caused by a new paralysis pattern that identified thiacloprid as an agent promoting a specific rigidity of posterior body wall muscle cells and peripheral neuropathy in the nematode (lowest-observed-effect-level 10 ng/ml). On the molecular level exposure with thiacloprid accelerated protein aggregation in body wall muscle cells of polyglutamine disease reporter worms indicating proteotoxic stress. The results from the soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans show that assessment of neurotoxicity by neonicotinoids requires acknowledgment and deeper research into dopaminergic and serotonergic neurochemistry of nontarget organisms. Likewise, it has to be considered more that different neonicotinoids may promote diverse neural end points.

DO₃SE (Deposition of Ozone for Stomatal Exchange), is a dry deposition model, designed to assess tropospheric ozone risk to vegetation, and is based on two alternative algorithms to estimate stomatal conductance: multiplicative and photosynthetic. The multiplicative model has been argued to perform better for leaf-level and regional-level application. In this study, we demonstrate that the photosynthetic model is superior to the multiplicative model even for leaf-level studies using measurements performed on Mangifera indica. We find that the multiplicative model overestimates the daytime stomatal conductance, when compared with measured stomatal conductance and prescribes zero conductance at night while measurements show an average conductance of 100 mmol(H₂O)m⁻²s⁻¹ between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. The daytime overestimation of the multiplicative model can be significantly reduced when the model is modified to include a response function for ozone-induced stomatal closure. However, nighttime pollutant uptake fluxes can only be accurately assessed with the photosynthetic model which includes the stomatal opening at night during respiration and is capable of reproducing the measured nighttime stomatal conductance. At our site, the nocturnal flux contributes 64%, 39%, 46%, and 88% of the total for NO₂ uptake in winter, summer, monsoon, and post-monsoon, respectively. For SO₂, nocturnal uptake amounts to 35%, 28%, 28%, and 44% in winter, summer, monsoon, and post-monsoon, respectively while for ozone the nighttime uptake contributes 30%, 17%, 18%, and 29% of the total stomatal uptake in winter, summer, monsoon, and post-monsoon respectively.

In recent decades, industrial emissions have been reduced in many countries, which provides an opportunity for the recovery of polluted ecosystems. However, our knowledge of the rate and factors facilitating the recovery of local bird populations after pollution abatement is incomplete. Long-term (1989–2021) annual observations on nest-box populations of a passerine bird, Ficedula hypoleuca, were used to analyze temporal dynamics of breeding parameters following a 50-fold reduction of industrial emissions from the Middle Ural copper smelter (MUCS) according to pollution zone, habitat, air temperature, and breeding density. In the heavily polluted (impact) zone (1–2 km of MUCS), egg and fledgling production were strongly impaired compared to the moderately polluted (buffer zone, 4–8 km of MUCS) and unpolluted control zone (16–27 km of MUCS). During the study period, the laying date advanced along with increasing spring air temperatures. The clutch size increased in the impact zone by 26%, in the buffer zone by 10%, and in control by 5%. The number of fledglings increased in the impact zone by 102% and the buffer zone by 17%. In the most recent year (2021), mean laying date, clutch size, fledgling production, and the frequency of nests with unhatched eggs in the impact zone did not reach the control level, whereas the frequency of nests with perished chicks did not differ among zones. Breeding parameters of birds in the impact zone improved slowly, likely due to the slow recovery of habitats. We conclude that bird reproduction may require many decades to recover fully in the heavily polluted zone.

Plume chasing is cost-effective, measuring individual, on-road vehicular emissions. Whereas, wake-flow-generated turbulence results in intermittent, rapid pollutant dilution and substantial fluctuating concentrations right behind the vehicle being chased. The sampling duration is therefore one of the important factors for acquiring representative (average) concentrations, which, however, has been seldom addressed. This paper, which is based on the detailed spatio-temporal dispersion data after a heavy-duty truck calculated by large-eddy simulation (LES), examines how sampling duration affects the uncertainty of the measured concentrations in plume chasing. The tailpipe dispersion is largely driven by the jet-like flows through the vehicle underbody with approximate Gaussian concentration distribution for x ≤ 0.6h, where x is the distance after the vehicle and h the characteristic vehicle size. Thereafter for x ≥ 0.6h, the major recirculation plays an important role in near-wake pollutant transport whose concentrations are highly fluctuating and positively shewed. Plume chasing for a longer sampling duration is more favourable but is logistically impractical in busy traffic. Sampling duration, also known as averaging time in the statistical analysis, thus has a crucial role in sampling accuracy. With a longer sampling (averaging) duration, the sample mean concentration converges to the population mean, improving the sample reliability. However, this effect is less pronounced in long sampling duration. The sampling accuracy is also influenced by the locations of sampling points. For the region x > 0.6h, the sampling accuracy is degraded to a large extent. As a result, acceptable sample mean is hardly achievable. Finally, frequency analysis unveils the mechanism leading to the variance in concentration measurements which is attributed to sampling duration. Those data with frequency higher than the sampling frequency are filtered out by moving average in the statistical analyses.

Freshwater ecosystems are the main source of water for sustaining life on earth, and the biodiversity they support is the main source of valuable goods and services for human populations. Despite growing recognition of the impairment of freshwater ecosystems by micropollutant contamination, different conceptual and methodological considerations can newly be addressed to improve our understanding of the ecological impact into these ecosystems. Here, we originally combined in situ ecotoxicology and community ecology concepts to unveil the mechanisms structuring macroinvertebrate communities along a regional contamination gradient. The novelty of our study lies in the use of an innovative biomonitoring approach (measurement of metal contents in caged crustaceans) allowing to quantify and compare on a regional scale the levels of bioavailable metal contamination to which stream communities are exposed. We were hence able to identify 23 streams presenting a significant gradient of bioavailable metal contamination within the same catchment area in the South West of France, from which we also obtained data on the composition of resident macroinvertebrate communities. Analyses of structural and functional integrity of communities revealed an unexpected decoupling between taxonomic and functional diversity of communities in response to bioavailable metal contamination. We show that despite the negative impact of bioavailable metal contamination exposure on taxonomic diversity (with an average species loss of 17% in contaminated streams), functional diversity is maintained through a process of non-random species replacement by functional redundant species at the regional scale. Such unanticipated findings call for a deeper characterization of metal-tolerant communities’ ability to cope with environmental variability in multi-stressed ecosystems.

Soil polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) generated from industrial processes are highly spatially heterologous, with limited quantitative studies on their main influencing factors. The present study evaluated the soil PAHs in three types of industrial parks (a petrochemical industrial park, a brominated flame retardant manufacturing park, and an e-waste dismantling park) and their surroundings. The total concentrations of 16 PAHs in the parks were 340–2.43 × 10³, 26.2–2.63 × 10³, and 394–2.01 × 10⁴ ng/g, which were significantly higher than those in the surrounding areas by 1–2 orders of magnitude, respectively. The highest soil PAH contamination was observed in the e-waste dismantling park. Nap can be considered as characteristic pollutant in the petrochemical industrial park, while Phe in the flame retardant manufacturing park and e-waste dismantling park. Low molecular weight PAHs (2–3 rings) predominated in the petrochemical industrial park (73.0%) and the surrounding area of brominated flame retardant manufacturing park (80.3%). However, high molecular weight PAHs (4–6 rings) were enriched in the other sampling sites, indicating distinct sources and determinants of soil PAHs. Source apportionment results suggested that PAHs in the parks were mainly derived from the leakage of petroleum products in the petroleum manufacturing process and pyrolysis or combustion of fossil fuels. Contrarily, the PAHs in the surrounding areas could have been derived from the historical coal combustion and traffic emissions. Source emissions, wind direction, and local topography influenced the PAH spatial distributions.

Hydrothermal carbonization is considered a powerful technology to convert sewage sludge (SS) into a valuable carbonaceous solid known as hydrochar (HC). Up to now criteria for landfill application of SS and HC are based only on physicochemical properties and levels of pollutant residues. Nevertheless, to ensure their safe environmental applications it is mandatory to develop biosensors which can provide relevant information on their toxic potential for natural ecosystems. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the suitability of a contact assay using zebrafish embryo/larvae combined with sub-lethal end-points to evaluate the hazard associated with SS and related HC exposure. A suite of biomarkers was also applied on larvae, related to detoxification and oxidative stress as the activity of Ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase, glutathione-S-transferase, and catalase, the content of reactive oxygen species and the behavioral assay using the DanioVision™ chamber. Legacy priority pollutants were also measured either in SS and HC tested samples and in contact waters. The exposure to SS caused higher lethality compared to HC. No significant changes in the activity of oxidative stress markers was observed upon exposure to both matrices. The behavioral test showed a hypoactivity condition in larvae exposed to both SS and HC with the effects of SS stronger than HC. Chemical analysis revealed the presence of trace elements and halogenated compounds in either SS, HC. Heavy metals were also released in contact waters, while volatile hydrocarbons (C6–C10) and halogenated compounds resulted below LOD (<0.05 μ L⁻¹). Our study highlights the suitability of zebrafish embryotoxicity test, coupled with behavioral traits, as screening tool for assessing potential risks, associated with the landfill application of both SS and HC, for aquatic wildlife.

Plant-derived saponins are bioactive surfactant compounds that can solubilize organic pollutants in environmental matrices, thereby facilitating pollutant remediation. Externally applied saponin has potential to enhance total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) biodegradation in the root zone (rhizosphere) of wild plants, but the associated mechanisms are not well understood. For the first time, this study evaluated a triterpenoid saponin (from red ash leaves, Alphitonia excelsa) in comparison to a synthetic surfactant (Triton X-100) for their effects on plant growth and biodegradation of TPH in the rhizosphere of two native wild species (a grass, Chloris truncata, and a shrub, Hakea prostrata). The addition of Triton X-100 at the highest level (1000 mg/kg) in the polluted soil significantly hindered the plant growth (reduced plant biomass and photosynthesis) and associated rhizosphere microbial activity in both the studied plants. Therefore, TPH removal in the rhizosphere of both plant species treated with the synthetic surfactant was not enhanced (at the lower level, 500 mg/kg soil) and even slightly decreased (at the highest level) compared to that in the surfactant-free (control) treatment. By contrast, TPH removal was significantly increased with saponin application (up to 60% in C. truncata at 1000 mg/kg due to enhanced plant growth and associated rhizosphere microbial activity). No significant difference was observed between the two saponin application levels. Dehydrogenase activity positively correlated with TPH removal (p < 0.001) and thus this parameter could be used as an indicator to predict the rhizoremediation efficiency. This work indicates that saponin-amended rhizoremediation could be an environmentally friendly and effective biological approach to remediate TPH-polluted soils. It was clear that the enhanced plant growth and rhizosphere microbial activity played a crucial role in TPH rhizoremediation efficiency. The saponin-induced molecular processes that promoted plant growth and soil microbial activity in the rhizosphere warrant further studies.