Interaction of curium(III) with plant cells (Brassica napus)

The accumulation of radionuclides and toxic heavy metals into plants and thus into the food chain represents a potential pathway for human exposure. Hence, detailed knowledge of the fate of these elements in the ecosphere including the food chain is required for a reliable assessment of the resulting risk potential for humans and wildlife. Our aim is to explore the complex interaction of trivalent actinides with plant cells on a molecular level using curium(III) as an excellent luminescence probe.
We studied the response of canola (Brassica napus) cells to curium(III) exposure (0.7 µM). TRLFS was used as direct speciation technique to explore the Cm(III) speciation on the cells and in the supernatants. Liquid scintillation counting (LSC) was applied to measure the Cm(III) content in the supernatants. The possible release of plant cell metabolites was probed by solid phase extraction (SPE) with subsequent HPLC analysis.
The bioassociation experiments were performed in 0.154 M NaCl in a glove box over a time period up to 168 h. After defined time steps the Cm(III) concentration in the supernatants was determined as well as luminescence spectra from washed cells and the supernatants were taken. The Cm(III) concentration in the supernatants as a function of time points to a multi-stage bioassociation process on the plant cells. Red shifted Cm(III) luminescence spectra (+8.6 nm compared to Cm3+(aq)) in the supernatants indicated a Cm(III) complexation by substances that were released by the plant cells already after an exposure time of 5 h. Cell metabolites could be enriched and extracted by SPE. TRLFS studies (spectra and lifetime) showed a different Cm(III) speciation on cells compared to those found in the supernatants. To further describe the spectroscopic Cm(III) speciation in the B. napus system all spectra were evaluated with iterative transformation factor analysis (ITFA, Roßberg et al. 2003). The so obtained results (single component spectra and time-dependent species distributions) will be discussed in order to describe the fate of Cm(III) in the presence of plant cells (B. napus).
This new knowledge contributes to an improved understanding of trivalent actinide interactions with plants on a molecular level.

The authors are indebted to the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, for the use of 248Cm via the transplutonium element production facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; 248Cm was made available as part of collaboration between HZDR and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). This study is part of the project TRANS-LARA which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research under contract number 02NUK051B.

Roßberg, A., Reich, T., Bernhard, G. 2003. Complexation of uranium(VI) with protocatechuic acid –
application of iterative transformation factor analysis
to EXAFS spectroscopy. Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 376, 631–638.