Abstract
Bisphenol A (BPA), an intermediate chemical used for synthesizing polycarbonate plastics, has now become a wide spread organic pollutant. It percolates from a variety of sources, and plants are among the first organisms to encounter, absorb, and metabolize it, while its toxic effects are not yet fully known. Therefore, we experimentally studied the effects of aqueous BPA solutions (50 and 100 mg L−1, for 6, 12, and 24 h) on photosystem II (PSII) functionality and evaluated the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) on detached leaves of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging analysis revealed a spatiotemporal heterogeneity in the quantum yields of light energy partitioning at PSII in Arabidopsis leaves exposed to BPA. Under low light PSII function was negatively influenced only at the spot-affected BPA zone in a dose- and time-dependent manner, while at the whole leaf only the maximum photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm) was negatively affected. However, under high light all PSII photosynthetic parameters measured were negatively affected by BPA application, in a time-dependent manner. The affected leaf areas by the spot-like mode of BPA action showed reduced chlorophyll autofluorescence and increased accumulation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). When H2O2 was scavenged via N-acetylcysteine under BPA exposure, PSII functionality was suspended, while H2O2 scavenging under non-stress had more detrimental effects on PSII function than BPA alone. It can be concluded that the necrotic death-like spots under BPA exposure could be due to ROS accumulation, but also H2O2 generation seems to play a role in the leaf response against BPA-related stress conditions.
Highlights
Plants are sessile organisms, specially affected by changes in their environment and unavoidably prone to many stress-factors
In order to test this hypothesis and provide novel insights into mechanisms of Bisphenol A (BPA) effects to plant physiological functions such as photosynthesis, we experimentally studied the effects of BPA aqueous solutions on several parameters of photosystem II (PSII) functionality in detached leaves of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana
We evaluated the effects of 50 and 100 mg L−1 BPA treatments for 6, 12 and 24 h on the chlorophyll fluorescence parameters Fv/ Fm, FPSII, FNPQ, fraction of non-regulated energy loss (FNO), and qp in order to evaluate BPA effects on PSII functionality
Summary
Specially affected by changes in their environment and unavoidably prone to many stress-factors. In plants, ROS roles in early signaling events initiated by various environmental stimuli have been established (Noctor et al, 2018; Huang et al, 2019). These stimuli could include extreme temperatures (Awasthi et al, 2015), drought (Laxa et al, 2019), heavy metals (Eleftheriou et al, 2015), nanoparticles (Sperdouli et al, 2019), and organic pollutants (Christou et al, 2018)
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