Specific plant DNA adducts as molecular biomarkers of genotoxic atmospheric environments.

The general purpose of this study was to determine whether the formation of DNA addition products ('adducts') in plants could be a valuable biomarker of genotoxic air pollution. Plants from several species were exposed to ambient atmosphere at urban and suburban sites representative of different environmental conditions. The levels of NO2 and of the quantitatively major genotoxic air pollutants benzene, toluene, and xylene were monitored in parallel with plant exposure.

Biochemical and molecular studies on declining and decline-resistant spruce in the north-east of France.

In declining forests of the Vosges mountains (northeast of France), we previously observed that the yellowing of spruce (Picea abies L. cv. Karsten) needles was associated with impairment of the free radical scavenging capacity of the cells and coincided with chronic exposure to ozone.

Changes in ascorbate peroxidase activities during fruit ripening in Capsicum annum.

The ascorbate peroxidase (APX) system was studied in Capsicum annum during fruit ripening. A large increase in organelle APX activity was found during chloroplast-chromoplast transition whereas only a slight difference was detected in total fruit extracts. On native gels, four different isoforms were found in total fruit extracts but the patterns for red and green fruit were quite different.

Detection of DNA adducts in declining hop plants grown on fields formerly treated with heptachlor, a persistent insecticide.

Hop decline was observed in Alsace, eastern France, in reparcelled sugar beet fields formerly abundantly treated with an insecticide, heptachlor. Leaves were collected from 'declining hops' grown in an heptachlor-contaminated area and from 'healthy hops' grown in a soil not contaminated by heptachlor. These two samples came from hop vines treated with other usual pesticides.

DNA adduct detection: some applications in monitoring exposure to environmental genotoxic chemicals.

In the assessment of genotoxic risk factors in the environment, the measurement of DNA adducts in aquatic organisms and in plants may have considerable implications. Using 32P-postlabelling, we have detected DNA adducts in the liver of carp (Chondrostoma nasus) from the River Rhône (France), both downstream and upstream from a polychlorinated biphenyl incineration plant. Some of the DNA adducts were specific to downstream fish, suggesting a differential pattern of exposure.