Potential Toxicity Investigation of Copper -Doped River Water of Nën-Shkodra Lowland (Albania) on a Plant Bio-test

Year 2015, Volume: 10 Issue: 4, 482 - 489, 30.10.2015

Ditika Kopliku Anila Dizdari Mesi

Abstract

Various
natural and anthropogenic copper sources have progressively increased its
environmental concentration, getting a hazardous threat to plant, animal and
human health due to bio-accumulation tendency and toxicity. In the present
investigation the Allium cepa L.
test was used to assess the toxicological tendency of some riverside water samples taken
in Nën-Shkodra lowland (Albania) and to evaluate
the toxic potency of copper, experimentally added in analyzed natural
waters. Roots of onion bulbs were exposed for 48 h
to three doses, representing respective ¼EC₅₀, ½ EC₅₀ and
EC₅₀ of CuSO₄-loaded samples. Macro and microscopic endpoints of onion roots grown in unloaded and
copper-loaded samples, such as: morphological aberrations, mitotic and phase
indexes, interphase nuclear
volume and DNA content, chromosomal aberration frequency
and types were evaluated and compared. There was a
distinct difference of toxicity rate between two groups of natural samples. The results showed obvious metal
concentration-dependence of all parameters, revealing that excess copper
can cause strong phyto-, cyto- and genotoxic effects on onion roots. Chromosome
stickiness, bridges and fragments, c-mitosis and disintegrated nuclei were
mostly detected. This approach resulted to be successfully applicable for
biological monitoring of water pollution, especially in developing countries as
Albania.

Keywords

Allium cepa test, copper, phytotoxicity, genotoxicity, nuclear DNA content

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