Rising tropospheric ozone concentrations in Asia affect the yield and quality of rice. This study investigated ozone-induced changes in rice grain quality in contrasting rice genotypes, and explored the associated physiological processes during the reproductive growth phase. The ozone sensitive variety Nipponbare and a breeding line (L81) containing two tolerance QTLs in Nipponbare background were exposed to 100 ppb ozone (8 h per day) or control conditions throughout their growth. Ozone affected grain chalkiness and protein concentration and composition. The percentage of chalky grains was significantly increased in Nipponbare but not in L81. Physiological measurements suggested that grain chalkiness was associated with a drop in foliar carbohydrate and nitrogen levels during grain filling, which was less pronounced in the tolerant L81. Grain total protein concentration was significantly increased in the ozone treatment, although the albumin fraction (water soluble protein) decreased. The increase in protein was more pronounced in L81, due to increases in the glutelin fraction in this genotype. Amino acids responded differently to the ozone treatment. Three essential amino acids (leucine, methionine and threonine) showed significant increases, while seven showed significant treatment by genotype interactions, mostly due to more positive responses in L81. The trend of increased grain protein was in contrast to foliar nitrogen levels, which were negatively affected by ozone. A negative correlation between grain protein and foliar nitrogen in ozone stress indicated that higher grain protein cannot be explained by a concentration effect in all tissues due to lower biomass production. Rather, ozone exposure affected the nitrogen distribution, as indicated by altered foliar activity of the enzymes involved in nitrogen metabolism, such as glutamine synthetase and glutamine-2-oxoglutarate aminotransferase. Our results demonstrate differential responses of grain quality to ozone due to the presence of tolerance QTL, and partly explain the underlying physiological processes.

Copper (Cu) is known to accumulate in agricultural soils receiving urban waste products as fertilizers. We here report the use of the leucine incorporation technique to determine pollution-induced community tolerance (Leu-PICT) to Cu in a long-term agricultural field trial. A significantly increased bacterial community tolerance to Cu was observed for soils amended with organic waste fertilizers and was positively correlated with total soil Cu. However, metal speciation and whole-cell bacterial biosensor analysis demonstrated that the observed PICT responses could be explained entirely by Cu speciation and bioavailability artifacts during Leu-PICT detection. Hence, the agricultural application of urban wastes (sewage sludge or composted municipal waste) simulating more than 100 years of use did not result in sufficient accumulation of Cu to select for Cu resistance. Our findings also have implications for previously published PICT field studies and demonstrate that stringent PICT detection criteria are needed for field identification of specific toxicants.

It is highly likely that the toxicity of water accommodated fractions (WAF) will influence marine microalgae, and consequently lead to potential risk for the marine ecological environment. However, it was often neglected whether WAF can influence the transformation of relative compounds in organisms. The metabolism of amino acids (AAs) can be used to track physiological changes in microalgae because amino acids are the basis of proteins and enzymes. In this study, using marine Chlorophyta Platymonas helgolandica as the test organism, the effects of different concentrations of WAF on AA compositions and stable carbon isotope ratios (δ¹³C) of individual AAs of Platymonas helgolandica were investigated. The results showed that the WAF of #180 fuel oil had an obvious suppressing effect on the growth and chlorophyll a content of microalgae. The growth inhibitory rate at 96 h was 80.66% at a WAF concentration of 0.50 mg L⁻¹ compared with the control. Furthermore, seven among the 16 AAs, including alanine, cysteine, proline, aspartic acid, lysine, histidine and tyrosine, had relatively high abundance. Under the glycolysis pathway, the cysteine abundance was higher than control, meaning that the biosynthesized pathway of alanine through cysteine as a precursor could be damaged. Phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) was an important synthesis precursor of alanine (leucine) and aromatic AA family (Phenylalanine and tyrosine), and played an important role in δ¹³CAAₛ fractionation under the WAF stress. Under the TCA pathway, to protect cell metabolism activities under WAF stress, the δ¹³C value of threonine and proline abundance in microalgae with the increase in WAF stress. Therefore, δ¹³CAAₛ fractionation can be used as a novel method for toxicity evaluation of WAF on future.

Recent studies have demonstrated the ability of mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) for plastic degradation. This study is focused on changes in microbiome structure depending on diets. Microbial community obtained from oat and cellulose diet formed similar group, two kinds of polyethylene formed another group, while polystyrene diet showed the highest dissimilarity. The highest relative abundance of bacteria colonizing gut was in PE-oxodegradable feeding, nevertheless all applied diets were higher in comparison to oat. Dominant phyla consisted of Proteobacteria, Bacteroides, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, however after PS feeding frequency in Planctomycetes and Nitrospirae increased. The unique bacteria characteristic for cellulose diet belonged to Selenomonas, while Pantoea were characteristic for both polyethylene diets, Lactococcus and Elizabethkingia were unique for each plastic diet, and potential diazotropic bacteria were characteristic for polystyrene diet (Agrobacterium, Nitrosomonas, Nitrospira).Enzymatic similarity between oatmeal and cellulose diets, was shown. All three plastics diet resulted in different activity in both, digestive tract and bacteria. The enzymes with the highest activity were included phosphatases, esterases, leucine arylamidase, β-galactosidase, β-glucuronidase, α-glucosidase, β-glucosidase, chitinase, α-mannosidase and α-fucosidase. The activity of digestive tract was stronger than cultured gut bacteria. In addition to known polyethylene degradation methods, larvae may degrade polyethylene with esterase, cellulose and oatmeal waste activity is related with the activity of sugar-degrading enzymes, degradation of polystyrene with anaerobic processes and diazotrophs.

As the world burden of environmental contamination increases, it is of the utmost importance to develop streamlined approaches to environmental risk assessment in order to prioritize mitigation measures. Whole-cell biosensors or bioreporters and speciation modeling have both become of increasing interest to determine the bioavailability of pollutants, as bioavailability is increasingly in use as an indicator of risk. Herein, we examine whether bioreporter results are able to reflect expectations based on chemical reactivity and speciation modeling, with the hope to extend the research into a wider framework of risk assessment. We study a specific test case concerning the bioavailability of lead (Pb) in aqueous environments containing Pb-complexing ligands. Ligands studied include ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA), meso-2,3 dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), leucine, methionine, cysteine, glutathione, and humic acid (HA), and we also performed experiments using natural water samples from Lake Tai (Taihu), the third largest lake in China. We find that EDTA, DMSA, cysteine, glutathione, and HA amendment significantly reduced Pb bioavailability with increasing ligand concentration according to a log-sigmoid trend. Increasing dissolved organic carbon in Taihu water also had the same effect, whereas leucine and methionine had no notable effect on bioavailability at the concentrations tested. We find that bioreporter results are in accord with the reduction of aqueous Pb2+ that we expect from the relative complexation affinities of the different ligands tested. For EDTA and HA, for which reasonably accurate ionization and complexation constants are known, speciation modeling is in agreement with bioreporter response to within the level of uncertainty recognised as reasonable by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for speciation-based risk assessment applications. These findings represent a first step toward using bioreporter technology to streamline the biological confirmation or validation of speciation modeling for use in environmental risk assessment.

Increased Cd concentrations in the environment impair plant growth, but plants properly supplied with S may develop greater tolerance to the damage caused by Cd and be used in the remediation of contaminated environments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the Cd-phytoextraction potential of Panicum maximum cv. Tanzania grown with S rates and to identify alterations in the concentrations of nutrients and amino acids and in the activity of some antioxidant enzymes under Cd stress conditions. Combinations of five S rates (0.1, 1.0, 1.9, 2.8, and 3.7 mmol L⁻¹) and five Cd rates (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 mmol L⁻¹) in a nutrient solution were provided in two plant growth periods. Concentrations of N, P, and Zn increased, while K, Fe, and Mn decreased with exposure to Cd. The concentration of Ca decreased as the S supply was increased. Isoleucine, leucine, proline, and valine concentrations increased with exposure to Cd and with higher levels of S. The APX activity was higher at the highest Cd exposure level. Activity and number of SOD and GR isoforms in the roots and of CAT in the shoots of the regrown plant decreased at the highest level of contamination by Cd, which was lessened by the supply of greater S rates. Tanzania guinea grass grown with an adequate supply of S has the potential for phytoextraction of Cd-contaminated environments.

In domestic wastewater, bacterial physiology controls cell production (growth, replication) and cell maintenance, determining how energy is allocated between these two processes. The aim here was to develop a method to quantify these cellular processes so that the bacterial physiological state could be manipulated to lower this source of pollution. We simultaneously used the incorporation of radiolabelled thymidine into DNA (a measure of new cell synthesis) and leucine into protein in wastewater to quantitatively distinguish bacterial growth from maintenance processes. We found that DNA and protein syntheses were coupled in wastewater after substrate enrichment (with glucose or acetate)—balanced growth. Once the substrate was depleted, the two processes became uncoupled—unbalanced growth. In this physiological state, the bacteria were synthesising protein, but fewer bacteria were replicating. More energy was allocated to cell maintenance than replication. A mean Leu/TdR ratio of 7.4 was determined for wastewater and was similar to natural aquatic ecosystems. As the bacterial growth rate decreased, the Leu/TdR ratios increased. We show how the simultaneous measurement of [³H]Leu and [³H]TdR quantitatively distinguishes balanced from unbalanced growth. Low [³H]Leu/[³H]TdR ratios indicated bacteria were physiologically stressed, an ideal state for biological wastewater treatment processes (WWTP) as the bacteria divert more energy to maintenance activities instead of growth. Leu/TdR ratios of 70 have been recorded in natural aquatic ecosystems which suggests WWTP have potential to be manipulated to achieve much higher Leu/TdR ratios than we report here. Changes to plant operation to improve operation efficiency include finding the optimum rate of substrate (pollution supply) or alternating aerobic and anaerobic periods to maximise the Leu/TdR ratio to achieve less biomass production for land disposal and more cost-effective operation that generates less pollution in the effluent.

Recovery, physicochemical and functional characteristics of proteins recovered from different meat processing wastewater streams were revealed in the present study. Wastewaters from surimi processing (SPW) and slaughterhouses, namely fish (FSW), cattle (CSW), poultry (PSW), and goat (GSW), exhibited protein, fat, ash, moisture, and microbial load in the range of 1.28–7.04%, 0.86–2.34%, 0.02–0.80%, 89.81–97.44%, and 5.33–5.81 CFU/mL, respectively. Among the wastewaters, SPW presented slightly higher protein (7.04%), fat (2.34%), and ash (0.80%) contents (P < 0.05). Furthermore, proteins recovered from SPW (SPWP) and FSW (FSWP), CSW (CSWP), PSW (PSWP), and GSW (GSWP) presented yield, protein, fat, ash, and moisture content in the range of 55.54–76.81%, 65.86–78.22%, 7.26–11.45%, 4.58–11.75%, and 5.67–14.79%. All protein samples displayed higher essential amino acid (EAA) content with leucine (8.47–14.52 g/100 g) as a predominant amino acid. GSWP and SPWP scored the highest and lowest EAA contents, respectively. SPWP displayed myofibrillar proteins as dominant proteins, while slaughterhouses’ wastewater proteins showed blood proteins as major proteins. β-Sheet is the major secondary structure presented by all protein samples. SPWP showed the highest lightness value as compared to other protein counterparts (P < 0.05). All protein samples from slaughterhouse wastewaters had the lowest protein solubility at pH 4.5. However, SPWP presented minimum solubility at pH 5.5. Among all protein samples, SPWP presented slightly higher water holding capacity and foaming property (P < 0.05), whereas FSWP displayed slightly higher emulsion property (P < 0.05). Overall, all meat processing wastewater streams served as good sources of high-quality proteins, which could be used as protein ingredients in animal feed formulation.

In this study, the metabolic effects of waterborne exposure of medaka (Oryzias latipes) to nominal concentrations of 20 (L group) and 2000 μg/L (H group) 2,4-dichlorophenol (DCP) were examined using a gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) metabolomics approach. A principal component analysis (PCA) separated the L, H, and control groups along PC1 to explain the toxic effects of DCP at 24 h of exposure. Furthermore, the L and H groups were separated along PC1 at 96 h on the PCA score plots. These results suggest that the effects of DCP depended on exposure concentration and time. Changes in tricarboxylic cycle metabolites suggested that fish exposed to 2,4-DCP require more energy to metabolize and eliminate DCP, particularly at 96 h of exposure. A time-dependent response in the fish exposed to DCP was observed in the GC/MS data, suggesting that the higher DCP concentration had greater effects at 24 h than those observed in response to the lower concentration. In addition, several essential amino acids (arginine, histidine, lysine, isoleucine, leucine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine) decreased after DCP exposure in the H group, and starvation condition and high concentration exposure of DCP could consume excess energy from amino acids.

The enzymatic hydrolysis using Prolyve BS coupled to membrane process (Ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF)) is a means of biotransformation of tuna protein waste to Tuna protein hydrolysate (TPH) with higher added values. This method could be an effective solution for the production of bioactive compounds used in various biotechnological applications and minimizing the pollution problems generated by the seafood processing industries. The amino acid composition, functional and antioxidant properties of produced TPH were evaluated. The results show that the glutamic acid, aspartic acid, glycine, alaline, valine and leucine were the major amino acids detected in the TPH profile. After membrane fractionation process, those major amino acids were concentrated in the NF retentate (NFR). The NFR and NF permeate (NFP) have a higher protein solubility (>95 %) when compared to TPH (80 %). Higher oil and water binding capacity were observed in TPH and higher emulsifying and foam stability was found in UF retentate. The NFP showed the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity (65 %). The NFR contained antioxidant amino acid (30.3 %) showed the highest superoxide radical and reducing power activities. The TPH showed the highest iron chelating activity (75 %) compared to other peptide fractions. The effect of the membrane fractionation on the molecular weight distribution of the peptide and their bioactivities was underlined. We concluded that the TPH is a valuable source of bioactive peptides and their peptide fractions may serve as useful ingredients for application in food industry and formulation of nutritional products.