Mutagenicity of PM2.5 and Ethnic Susceptibility in Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, China

Abstract

PM2.5 seriously endangers human health, and its mutagenicity is considered an important pathogenic mechanism. However, the mutagenicity of PM2.5 is mainly determined by traditional bioassays, which are limited in the large-scale identification of mutation sites. Single nucleoside polymorphisms (SNPs) can be used for the large-scale analysis of DNA mutation sites but have not yet been used on the mutagenicity of PM2.5. The Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle is one of China's four major economic circles and five major urban agglomerations, and the relationship between the mutagenicity of PM2.5 and ethnic susceptibility in this circle remains unclear. In this study, the representative samples are PM2.5 from Chengdu in summer (CDSUM), Chengdu in winter (CDWIN), Chongqing in summer (CQSUM) and Chongqing in winter (CQWIN) respectively. PM2.5 from CDWIN, CDSUM and CQSUM induce the highest levels of mutation in the regions of exon/5′Utr, upstream/splice site and downstream/3′Utr respectively. PM2.5 from CQWIN, CDWIN and CDSUM induce the highest ratio of missense, nonsense and synonymous mutation respectively. PM2.5 from CQWIN and CDWIN induce the highest transition and transversion mutations respectively. The ability of PM2.5 from the four groups to induce disruptive mutation effects is similar. For ethnic susceptibility, PM2.5 in this economic circle is more likely to induce DNA mutation in Chinese Dai from Xishuangbanna among Chinese ethnic groups. PM2.5 from CDSUM, CDWIN, CQSUM and CQWIN may particularly tend to induce Southern Han Chinese, Dai in Xishuangbanna, Dai in Xishuangbanna and Southern Han Chinese respectively. These findings may assist in the development of a new method for analyzing the mutagenicity of PM2.5. Moreover, this study not only promotes attention to ethnic susceptibility to PM2.5, but also introduces public protection policies for the susceptible population.