Physiological and Biochemical Characterization of the Effects of Oxidant Air Pollutants, Ozone and Gas-phase Nitric Acid, on Plants and Lichens for their Use as Early Warning Biomonitors of these Air Pollutants
Authors: Hochman Ayala , Nash III Thomas , Padgett Pamela 
Published: March 2022

Introduction. Ozone and related oxidants are regarded as the most important phytotoxic air pollutant in many parts of the western world. A previously unrecognized component of smog, nitric acid, may have even greater deleterious effects on plants either by itself or by augmenting ozone injury. The effects of ozone on plants are well characterized with respect to structural and physiological changes, but very little is known about the biochemical changes in plants and lichens exposed to ozone and/or HNO3.  Objectives.To compare and contrast the responses of crop plants and lichens to dry deposition of HNO3 and O3., separately, and combined in order to assess our working hypothesis that lichens respond to air pollution faster than plants. Lichens are most suitable for use as biomonitors because they offer a live-organism-based system that does not require maintenance and can be attached to any site, without the need for man-made technical support systems. Original Immediate aims To expose the tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) cultivar Bel-W3 that is ozone supersensitive and the ozone sensitive red kidney bean (Phaseolusvulgaris) and the lichen Ramalinamenziesii to controlled HNO3 and O3 fumigations and combined and to follow the resulting structural, physiological and biochemical changes, with special reference to reactive oxygen species related parameters. Revised. Due to technical problems and time limitations we studied the lichen Ramalinamenziesii and two cultivar of tobacco: Bel-W3 that is ozone supersensitive and a resistant cultivar, which were exposed to HNO3 and O3 alone (not combined).   Methodology. Plants and lichens were exposed in fumigation experiments to HNO3 and O3, in constantly stirred tank reactors and the resulting structural, physiological and biochemical changes were analyzed.  Results. Lichens. Exposure of Ramalinamenziesiito HNO3 resulted in cell membrane damage that was evident by 14 days and continues to worsen by 28 days. Chlorophyll, photosynthesis and respiration all declined significantly in HNO3 treatments, with the toxic effects increasing with dosage. In contrast, O3 fumigations of R. menziesii showed no significant negative effects with no differences in the above response variables between high, moderate and low levels of fumigations. There was a gradual decrease in catalase activity with increased levels of HNO3. The activity of glutathione reductase dropped to 20% in thalli exposed to low HNO3 but increased with its increase. Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity increase by 20% with low levels of the pollutants but decreased with its increase.  Tobacco. After 3 weeks of exposure of the sensitive tobacco cultivar to ozone there were visible symptoms of toxicity, but no danmage was evident in the tolerant cultivar. Neither cultivar showed any visible symptoms after exposure to HNO3.In tobacco fumigated with O3, there was a significant decrease in maximum photosynthetic CO2 assimilation and stomatal conductance at high levels of the pollutant, while changes in mesophyll conductance were not significant. However, under HNO3 fumigation there was a significant increase in mesophyll conductance at low and high HNO3 levels while changes in maximum photosynthetic CO2 assimilation and stomatal conductance were not significant. We could not detect any activity of the antioxidant enzymes in the fumigated tobacco leaves. This is in spite of the fact that we were able to assay the enzymes in tobacco leaves grown in Israel.  Conclusions. This project generated novel data, and potentially applicable to agriculture, on the differential response of lichens and tobacco to HNO3 and O3 pollutants. However, due to experimental problems and time limitation discussed in the body of the report, our data do not justify yet application for a full, 4-year grant. We hope that in the future we shall conduct more experiments related to our objectives, which will serve as a basis for a larger scale project to explore the possibility of using lichens and/or plants for biomonitoring of ozone and nitric acid air pollution.