Mutagenicity in Tradescantia pallida as an Indicator of the Effect of Air Pollution and Human Health

Abstract

The present study aims to relate the micronucleus frequency in Tradescantia pallida to environmental factors and cardiorespiratory diseases to infer the effect of air pollution. The number of hospitalizations, diseases cases, frequency of micronuclei in plants, environmental variables, altitude, and vehicle traffic in cities of Mato Grosso do Sul were evaluated due to the high flow that surrounds agribusiness. The frequency of micronuclei decreased with the increase in relative humidity, while the altitude did not influence the mutagenicity or genotoxicity of the evaluated plants. The municipalities with micronucleus frequencies above 200 had the highest number of vehicle and cardiorespiratory diseases. Biomonitoring data obtained in cities throughout the year indicate that the number of cardiorespiratory diseases was probably due to vehicular pollution, which is evidenced by the increased frequency of micronuclei in T. pallida.

Evaluation the Urban Atmospheric Conditions Using Micronuclei Assay and Stomatal Index in Tradescantia pallida

“…In a study on the influence of pollutants on T. pallida, the authors [27,29] identified a positive association between genetic effects in pollen grains of inflorescences exposed to a high volume of cars in urban intersections. Similar results were found in regions with different fleet volumes in the municipalities of Ribeirão Preto in southeastern Brazil [36] and São Leopoldo in southern Brazil [58] and in the Dourados microregion in central-western Brazil [23], where areas with high vehicle emissions were correlated to higher frequencies of MCN. These regions have minimum and maximum distances from each other of approximately 900 and 1400 km, respectively; however, they showed consistent patterns when inferring vehicle flow at the MCN frequency.…”

“…Angélica has a single-access road to the municipality, which results in reduced vehicle circulation and consequently minimal emissions of exhaust gases from the combustion engine with a high concentration of toxic elements. Godoy et al [23] also showed that the high MCN frequencies in T. pallida were mainly related to the high vehicle flow and high population density.…”

“…In a recent study, ref. [23], the authors related the frequency of micronuclei of environmental conditions, cardiorespiratory diseases, number of hospitalizations, and pathologies to vehicle flow in some cities of Mato Grosso do Sul. This same study also identified that municipalities with high MCN frequencies exhibited the highest number of cardiorespiratory diseases.…”

“…The use of higher plants integrated with environmental biomonitoring is an effective tool for measuring the air quality in urban areas, as addressed in several scientific articles [23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. The main reservoir of gaseous pollutants in plants is the leaf surface, with gases commonly entering through the stomata, an important structure in the gas exchange between plants and the atmosphere [26,27].…”

“…Studies conducted in cities in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul in its the southwestern mesoregion [26], Dourados microregion [23,29,47,48], some municipalities of greater Dourados [27], and Bodoquena region [24,25] have shown that toxic substances released by motor vehicles and weather conditions can lead to genetic and anatomical leaf damage to T. pallida in urban environments, indicating the applicability of this methodology for evaluating air quality and its negative implications for humans.…”