Toxic effects of organophosphate flame retardants on marine microalgae Chaetoceros muelleri: Insights from physiological and transcriptomic analyses

IF 7.3 2区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Environmental Pollution Pub Date : 2025-06-16 DOI:10.1016/j.envpol.2025.126688

Yu-xin Wu , Su-chun Wang , Fei-fei Liu

{"title":"Toxic effects of organophosphate flame retardants on marine microalgae Chaetoceros muelleri: Insights from physiological and transcriptomic analyses","authors":"Yu-xin Wu , Su-chun Wang , Fei-fei Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.envpol.2025.126688","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The large-scale use of organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) has led to their prevalence in the environment. However, their toxicity on marine microalgae has not been adequately investigated. In this study, we investigated the toxic effects of three representative OPFRs including 2-ethylhexyl diphenyl phosphate (EHDPP), tricresyl phosphate (TCP), and triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) on marine microalgae <em>Chaetoceros muelleri</em>, and explored the potential toxicity mechanisms through transcriptomic analysis. The results demonstrated that OPFRs induced cellular deformation and inhibited the growth of algal cells, with inhibition rates reaching 63.2%, 52.4%, and 72.5% after 96 h at 0.5 mg/L for EHDPP and TCP, and 3.0 mg/L for TPhP. In addition, OPFRs significantly damaged the structure and function of ribosomes in the cells and inhibited the expression of genes for photosynthetic protein synthesis, which in turn suppressed the synthesis of chlorophyll, reduced the ability of light energy conversion, hindered the photosynthetic electron transfer, and triggered the formation of a large number of ROS in the algal cells, leading to lipid peroxidation of the algal cell membranes. These findings provide new insights into the mechanisms of toxicity of OPFRs in marine microalgae and contribute to a better understanding of the ecological consequences of OPFRs in aquatic environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":311,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Pollution","volume":"382 ","pages":"Article 126688"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental Pollution","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749125010619","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The large-scale use of organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) has led to their prevalence in the environment. However, their toxicity on marine microalgae has not been adequately investigated. In this study, we investigated the toxic effects of three representative OPFRs including 2-ethylhexyl diphenyl phosphate (EHDPP), tricresyl phosphate (TCP), and triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) on marine microalgae Chaetoceros muelleri, and explored the potential toxicity mechanisms through transcriptomic analysis. The results demonstrated that OPFRs induced cellular deformation and inhibited the growth of algal cells, with inhibition rates reaching 63.2%, 52.4%, and 72.5% after 96 h at 0.5 mg/L for EHDPP and TCP, and 3.0 mg/L for TPhP. In addition, OPFRs significantly damaged the structure and function of ribosomes in the cells and inhibited the expression of genes for photosynthetic protein synthesis, which in turn suppressed the synthesis of chlorophyll, reduced the ability of light energy conversion, hindered the photosynthetic electron transfer, and triggered the formation of a large number of ROS in the algal cells, leading to lipid peroxidation of the algal cell membranes. These findings provide new insights into the mechanisms of toxicity of OPFRs in marine microalgae and contribute to a better understanding of the ecological consequences of OPFRs in aquatic environments.

Abstract Image

查看原文本刊更多论文

有机磷阻燃剂对海洋微藻毛羽毛藻的毒性作用：来自生理和转录组学分析的见解

有机磷阻燃剂的大规模使用导致其在环境中普遍存在，但其对海洋微藻的毒性尚未得到充分的研究。本研究研究了2-乙基己基磷酸二苯酯（EHDPP）、磷酸三烷基酯（TCP）和磷酸三苯酯（TPhP） 3种具有代表性的OPFRs对海洋微藻毛氏毛藻（Chaetoceros muelleri）的毒性作用，并通过转录组学分析探讨了其潜在的毒性机制。结果表明，OPFRs在EHDPP和TCP浓度为0.5 mg/L、TPhP浓度为3.0 mg/L的条件下，诱导藻细胞变形，抑制藻细胞生长，96 h后抑制率分别为63.2%、52.4%和72.5%。此外，OPFRs显著破坏细胞内核糖体的结构和功能，抑制光合蛋白合成基因的表达，进而抑制叶绿素的合成，降低光能转换能力，阻碍光合电子转移，引发藻细胞内大量ROS的形成，导致藻细胞膜脂质过氧化。这些发现为OPFRs在海洋微藻中的毒性机制提供了新的见解，并有助于更好地了解OPFRs在水生环境中的生态后果。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Environmental Pollution 环境科学-环境科学

CiteScore

16.00

自引率

6.70%

发文量

2082

审稿时长

2.9 months

期刊介绍： Environmental Pollution is an international peer-reviewed journal that publishes high-quality research papers and review articles covering all aspects of environmental pollution and its impacts on ecosystems and human health. Subject areas include, but are not limited to: • Sources and occurrences of pollutants that are clearly defined and measured in environmental compartments, food and food-related items, and human bodies; • Interlinks between contaminant exposure and biological, ecological, and human health effects, including those of climate change; • Contaminants of emerging concerns (including but not limited to antibiotic resistant microorganisms or genes, microplastics/nanoplastics, electronic wastes, light, and noise) and/or their biological, ecological, or human health effects; • Laboratory and field studies on the remediation/mitigation of environmental pollution via new techniques and with clear links to biological, ecological, or human health effects; • Modeling of pollution processes, patterns, or trends that is of clear environmental and/or human health interest; • New techniques that measure and examine environmental occurrences, transport, behavior, and effects of pollutants within the environment or the laboratory, provided that they can be clearly used to address problems within regional or global environmental compartments.