Ying Ji, Adrien Mestrot, Rainer Schulin, Susan Tandy
Abstract
Used as a hardening agent in lead bullets, antimony (Sb) has become a major contaminant in shooting range soils of some countries including Switzerland. Soil contamination by Sb is also an environmental problem in countries with Sb-mining activities such as China and Bolivia. Because of its toxicity and relatively high mobility, there is concern over the risk of Sb transfer from contaminated soils into plants, and thus into the food chain. In particular there is very little information on the environmental behavior of methylated antimony, which can be produced by microbial biomethylation of inorganic Sb in contaminated soils. Using a new extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS) method, we investigated antimony speciation in roots and shoots of wheat, fescue, rye, and ryegrass plants exposed to trimethyl antimony(V) (TMSb), antimonite (Sb(III)), and antimonate (Sb(V)) in hydroponics. The total root Sb concentrations followed the order Sb(III) treatment > Sb(V) treatment > TMSb treatment, except for fescue. Shoot Sb concentrations, however, did not differ among the three treatments. In the Sb(V) treatment small quantities of TMSb were found in the roots, whereas no TMSb was detected in the roots of Sb(III)-treated plants. In contrast, similar concentrations of TMSb were found in the shoots in both inorganic Sb treatments. The results indicate that biomethylation of Sb may occur in plants. In the TMSb treatment TMSb was the major Sb species, but the two inorganic Sb species were also found both in shoots and roots along with some unknown Sb species, suggesting that also TMSb demethylation may occur within plant tissues. The results furthermore indicate that methylated Sb is more mobile in plants than inorganic Sb species. Knowledge about this is important in risk assessments of Sb-contaminated sites, as methylation may render Sb more toxic than inorganic Sb, as it is known for arsenic (As).
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
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3%
Other
4
13%
Unknown
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23%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 July 2018.
All research outputs
#14,314,737
of 23,025,074 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Plant Science
#8,051
of 20,556 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#242,771
of 446,086 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Plant Science
#237
of 468 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,025,074 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 37th percentile – i.e., 37% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
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