Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun. 1999, 64, 1497-1509
https://doi.org/10.1135/cccc19991497

Correlation of PCB Transformation by Plant Tissue Cultures with Their Morphology and Peroxidase Activity Changes

Petra Kučerováa, Martina Mackováa,*, Ludmila Poláchováa, Jiří Burkhardb, Kateřina Demnerováa, Jarmila Pazlarováa and Tomáš Macekc

a Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Prague Institute of Chemical Technology, 166 28 Prague 6, Czech Republic
b Department of Environmental Chemistry, Prague Institute of Chemical Technology, 166 28 Prague 6, Czech Republic
c Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Flemingovo nám. 2, 166 10 Prague 6, Czech Republic

Abstract

The ability of plant cells cultivated in vitro to metabolize polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) was correlated with the morphology of the cultures tested as models for phytoremediation studies. More differentiated cultures showed generally higher transformation capacity. The ability of plant cells to transform PCBs is connected to their viability in the presence of PCBs and their behaviour can be positively correlated with the production of intracellular and extracellular peroxidases. The cultures with high PCB-transforming activity proved to exhibit high peroxidase activity in the presence of PCBs while those with low ability to metabolize PCB showed a decrease of the enzyme activity in the presence of PCBs. Experiments with propylgallate were used to distinguish the ratio of involvement of peroxidases in PCB metabolism.

Keywords: Polychlorinated biphenyls; Plant cells; Phytoremediation; Peroxidases; Inhibition; Biocatalysis; Oxidations; Xenobiotics.