Citation:
Andrea Ventrella, Lucia Catucci, Elena Piletska, Sergey Piletsky, Angela
Agostiano, Interactions between heavy metals and photosynthetic materials
studied by optical techniques, Bioelectrochemistry, Volume 77, Issue 1, November
2009, Pages 19-25
Abstract:
In this work studies on rapid inhibitory interactions between heavy metals and
photosynthetic materials at different organization levels were carried out by
optical assay techniques, investigating the possibility of applications in the
heavy metal detection field. Spinach chloroplasts, thylakoids and Photosystem II
proteins were employed as biotools in combination with colorimetric assays based
on dichlorophenol indophenole (DCIP) photoreduction and on fluorescence emission
techniques. It was found that copper and mercury demonstrated a strong and rapid
photosynthetic activity inhibition, that varied from proteins to membranes,
while other metals like nickel, cobalt and manganese produced only slight
inhibition effects on all tested photosynthetic materials. By emission
measurements, only copper was found to rapidly influence the photosynthetic
material signals. These findings give interesting information about the rapid
effects of heavy metals on isolated photosynthetic samples, and are in addition
to the literature data concerning the effects of growth in heavy metal enriched
media.