Tradescantia-micronucleus assay on the water quality of lake Hongzhe in Jiangsu Province, China

Abstract

Lake Hongzhe, located in the northwest part of the Province of Jiangsu, is one of the five largest freshwater lakes in China. It has great economic importance for the fishery industry and for scenic beauty. Effluents from the industrial development and runoff from farm chemicals have contributed increasingly to the water pollutants in recent years. For many years, water quality has been monitored only by chemical analysis. No information is provided from the chemical analysis on the toxicity level of the aquatic forms in the lake and the ecosystems that directly or indirectly depend upon this water. In the present study, some chemical components were determined from water samples collected from the lake and in addition, the genotoxicity of the same water samples was determined using the Tradescantia-micronucleus bioassay. Results confirmed that the quantity of pollutants in the water bears some relationship with the genotoxicity in terms of chromosome damage. High nitrates and nitrogen content were the main contributing factors observed. The use of bioassays such as the Tradescantia-micronucleus test together with chemical analyses to monitor the water quality is highly recommended for the general practice for the environmental monitoring stations through the country.