Iqbal Munawar
National Centre of Excellence in Physical Chemistry, University of Peshawar, Peshawar 25120, Pakistan.
Chemosphere. 2016 Feb;144:785-802. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.09.048. Epub 2015 Sep 27.
Higher plants are recognized as excellent genetic models to detect cytogenetic and mutagenic agents and are frequently used in environmental monitoring studies. Vicia faba (V. faba) bioassay have been used to study DNA damages i.e., chromosomal and nuclear aberrations induced by metallic compounds, pesticides, complex mixtures, petroleum derivates, toxins, nanoparticles and industrial effluents. The main advantages of using V. faba is its availability round the year, economical to use, easy to grow and handle; its use does not require sterile conditions, rate of cell division is fast, chromosomes are easy to score, less expensive and more sensitive as compared to other short-term tests that require pre-preparations. The V. faba test offers evaluation of different endpoints and tested agents can be classified as cytotoxic/genotoxic/mutagenic. This test also provides understanding about mechanism of action, whether the tested agent is clastogenic or aneugenic in nature. In view of advantages offered by V. faba test system, it is used extensively to assess toxic agents and has been emerged as an important bioassay for ecotoxicological studies. Based on the applications of V. faba test to assess the environmental quality, this article offers an overview of this test system and its efficiency in assessing the cytogenetic and mutagenic agents in different classes of the environmental concerns.
高等植物被认为是检测细胞遗传学和诱变剂的优秀遗传模型，常用于环境监测研究。蚕豆生物测定已被用于研究金属化合物、农药、复杂混合物、石油衍生物、毒素、纳米颗粒和工业废水引起的DNA损伤，即染色体和细胞核畸变。使用蚕豆的主要优点是全年都可获得，使用经济，易于种植和处理；其使用不需要无菌条件，细胞分裂速度快，染色体易于计数，与其他需要预先准备的短期试验相比，成本更低且更敏感。蚕豆试验可评估不同的终点，受试物可分为细胞毒性/遗传毒性/诱变性。该试验还能了解作用机制，即受试物在本质上是致断裂的还是非整倍体的。鉴于蚕豆试验系统的优势，它被广泛用于评估有毒物质，并已成为生态毒理学研究的重要生物测定方法。基于蚕豆试验在评估环境质量方面的应用，本文概述了该试验系统及其在评估不同类别的环境问题中的细胞遗传学和诱变剂方面的效率。
