Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) caused oxidative stress and metabolic disorders in lettuce (Lactuca sativa) root

Eliminating the critical knowledge gaps of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) effects in planta is the imperative target to accomplish accurate and meaningful exposure-risk assessment in the environment. Here, we investigated the effect of environmentally relevant concentrations of PFOA on the oxidative stress and metabolic regulation in lettuce (Lamas saliva) root. Under the exposure to 5 and 50 mu g/L PFOA for 10days, 137.5 and 1275.0 ng PFOA/g dry weight were accumulated to roots, respectively. H2O2. the dominant reactive oxygen species, was slightly overgenerated by 4.7%-9.5%. No signs of oxidative damage, such as lipid peroxidation, cell membrane integrity and soluble protein content, were observed. To deal with PFOA stress, the activities of ascorbate peroxidase and peroxidase and the contents of glutathione were dose-dependently up-regulated. Partial least-squares discriminant analysis revealed metabolite profiles were significantly altered by PFOA, involving the primary metabolism (e.g., sucrose, glucose, fructose-6-phosphate, methionine, gamma-aminobutyric acid), and the biosynthesis of (poly) phenol (e.g., shikimate, naringenin) and alkaloid (e.g., geranyl diphosphate, dopamine). Our findings showed that environmentally relevant concentrations of PFOA significantly perturbed metabolisms in plant roots albeit no remarkable cell damage was induced. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study investigated the effects of PFOA on oxidative stress and metabolic regulation in lettuce roots, revealing that environmentally relevant concentrations of PFOA significantly perturbed metabolisms in plant roots despite no remarkable cell damage being induced.