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Toxicity of Cu (II) to the green alga Chlorella vulgaris: a perspective of photosynthesis and oxidant stress

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Abstract

The toxic effects of Cu (II) on the freshwater green algae Chlorella vulgaris and its chloroplast were investigated by detecting the responses of photosynthesis and oxidant stress. The results showed that Cu (II) arrested the growth of C. vulgaris and presented in a concentration- and time-dependent trend and the SRichards 2 model fitted the inhibition curve best. The chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, including qP, Y (II), ETR, F v /F m , and F v /F 0, were stimulated at low concentration of Cu (II) but declined at high concentration, indicating the photosystem II (PSII) of C. vulgaris was destroyed by Cu (II). The chloroplasts were extracted, and the Hill reaction activity (HRA) of chloroplast was significantly decreased with the increasing Cu (II) concentration under both illuminating and dark condition, and faster decline speed was observed under dark condition. Activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) and malondialdehyde (MDA) content were also significantly decreased at high concentration Cu (II), companied with a large number of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. All these results indicated a severe oxidative stress on algal cells occurred as well as the effect on photosynthesis, thus inhibiting the growth of algae, which providing sights to evaluate the phytotoxicity of Cu (II).

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Acknowledgments

This manuscript was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21377111 and 21377115).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Zunwei Chen, Shufang Song, Yuezhong Wen & Yuqin Zou

  2. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, 310012, China

    Huijun Liu

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  1. Zunwei Chen
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  2. Shufang Song
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Correspondence to Yuezhong Wen or Huijun Liu.

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Responsible editor: Thomas Braunbeck

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Chen, Z., Song, S., Wen, Y. et al. Toxicity of Cu (II) to the green alga Chlorella vulgaris: a perspective of photosynthesis and oxidant stress. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 17910–17918 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6997-2

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