Physiological and Biochemical Parameters of Common Duckweed Lemna minor after the Exposure to Tetracycline and the Recovery from This Stress

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 26; no. 22; p. 6765
• Main Authors: Krupka, Magdalena, Michalczyk, Dariusz J., Žaltauskaitė, Jūratė, Sujetovienė, Gintarė, Głowacka, Katarzyna, Grajek, Hanna, Wierzbicka, Marta, Piotrowicz-Cieślak, Agnieszka I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 09-11-2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Animals; Antibiotics; Antioxidants; Aquatic plants; Cell membranes; Chlorophyll; Drinking water; Duckweed; Enzymatic activity; Enzyme activity; Enzymes; Floating plants; Free radicals; Groundwater; Hsp70 protein; HSP70 protein content; Lemna minor; membrane damage; Membrane permeability; Membrane proteins; Mitochondria; mitochondrial activity; Permeability; Physiology; Plant growth; Rivers; Water pollution; Water quality; Pakistan; United States > US; China; Germany
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules26226765

In this study, the ability of Lemna minor L. to recover to normal growth, after being degraded in a tetracycline-containing medium, was extensively investigated. The plants were exposed to tetracycline (TC) at concentrations of 1, 2.5, and 10 mM. Subsequently, their physiological status was analysed against the following criteria: rate of plant growth; free radical accumulation; antioxidant enzyme activity; chlorophyll content; HSP70 protein content; cell membrane permeability, and mitochondrial activity. The study showed that duckweed can considerably recover from the damage caused by antibiotics, within a week of cessation of stress. Of the plant properties analysed, mitochondrial activity was the most sensitive to antibiotic-induced disturbances. After transferring the plants to a tetracycline-free medium, all plant parameters improved significantly, except for the mitochondrial activity in the plants grown on the medium containing the highest dose of tetracycline. In the plants treated with this antibiotic at the concentration of 10 mM, the proportion of dead mitochondria increased and was as high as 93% after one week from the beginning of the recovery phase, even after the transfer to the tetracycline-free medium.