Researchers at Kobe University's Biosignal Research Center have successfully developed plants that can be used to detect organic pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls and endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which contaminate soil and water.
The team consisted of Petya Stoykova, recipient of a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research in Japan (now a researcher at Bulgaria's AgroBioInstitute), Kobe University Professor Emeritus OHKAWA Hideo and Professor INUI Hideyuki.
Next, they hope to use plants to develop convenient and inexpensive technology for monitoring toxicity.
These research results were published online in two papers, which appeared separately in the Journal of Plant Physiology on June 29 and the Chemosphere on July 22.
Main points
- Environmental monitoring is vital for understanding how pollution from chemical substances spreads through the surrounding environment.
- The researchers developed a new monitoring method by introducing chemical receptors from animals into plants.
- They were able to detect the pollutant polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), a type of dioxin, using AhR* plants.
- Using ER* plants, they were able to detect pollution from endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
- The transgenic plants developed in this study do not require pretreatment and could be utilized as a way to conveniently and inexpensively monitor pollutants' toxicity.
