Chlorophyll fluorescence in sentinel plants for the surveillance of chemical risk

Abstract

This research aimed to develop natural plant systems to serve as biological sentinels for the detection of organophosphate pesticides in the environment. The working hypothesis was that the presence of the pesticide in the environment caused changes in the content of pigments and in the photosynthetic functioning of the plant, which could be evaluated non-destructively through the analysis of reflected light and emitted fluorescence. The objective of the research was to furnish in vivo indicators derived from spectroscopic parameters, serving as early alert signals for the presence of organophosphates in the environment. In this context, the effects of two pesticides, Chlorpyrifos and Dimethoate, on the spectroscopic properties of aquatic plants (Vallisneria nana and Spathyfillum wallisii) were studied. Chlorophyll-a variable fluorescence allowed monitoring both pesticides´ presence before any damage was observed at the naked eye, with the analysis of the fast transient (OJIP curve) proving more responsive than Kautsky kinetics, steady-state fluorescence, or reflectance measurements. Pesticides produced a decrease in the maximum quantum yield of PSII photochemistry, in the proportion of PSII photochemical deexcitation relative to PSII non photochemical decay and in the probability that trapped excitons moved electrons into the photosynthetic transport chain beyond QA−. Additionally, an increase in the proportion of absorbed energy being dissipated as heat rather than being utilized in the photosynthetic process, was notorious. The pesticides induced a higher deactivation of chlorophyll excited states by photophysical pathways (including fluorescence) with a decrease in the quantum yields of photosystem II and heat dissipation by non-photochemical quenching. The investigated aquatic plants served as sentinels for the presence of pesticides in the environment, with the alert signal starting within the first milliseconds of electronic transport in the photosynthetic chain. Organophosphates damage animals´ central nervous systems similarly to certain compounds found in chemical weapons, thus raising the possibility that sentinel plants could potentially signal the presence of such weapons.