Effect of a chronic and moderate ozone pollution on the phenolic pattern of bean leaves (Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv Nerina): relations with visible injury and biomass production.

From sowing, bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv Nerina) plants were exposed to three chronic doses of ozone for 7h.day(-1): non-filtered air (NF), non-filtered air supplied with 40nl.l(-1) ozone (NF+40) and non-filtered air supplied with 60nll(-1) ozone (NF+60). Four harvests were carried out 6, 13, 20 and 27 days after emergence. Either primary leaves, or first trifoliate leaves, or both were sampled as far as possible. For each sampled leaf, visible ozone injuries were registered, the free polyphenolic pool was analysed using HPLC and the dry matter was weighed. Visible damage on leaves was related to both exposure time and ozone concentration added. There were no adverse effects of added ozone on the biomass of primary leaves while a significant reduction of first trifoliates dry matter could be observed (NF+60 atmosphere, third and fourth harvest). Among the normally occurring phenolics, we detected a significant decrease in the accumulation of a hydroxycinnamic acid derivative as the ozone concentration increased. Nevertheless, we demonstrated that this ozone-induced modification could be sometimes distinguishable with difficulties from changes expected to be of development relevance. Beside this phenolic disbalance, we detected a de novo biosynthesis of compounds that closely depended on the level of visible ozone injury. Since their accumulation increased with leaf damage, these ozone-induced phenolics could be used to detect phytotoxic ambient levels of tropospheric ozone.