Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
Haelixa AG, Kemptpark 4, 8310 Kemptthal, Otto-Stern-Weg 7, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
Environ Sci Technol. 2021 May 18;55(10):6867-6875. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c07968. Epub 2021 Apr 26.
Environmental tracers are chemical species that move with a fluid and allow us to understand its origin and material transport properties. DNA-based materials have been proposed and used for tracing due to their potential for multitracing with high specificity and sensitivity. For large-scale applications of this new material it is of interest to understand its impact on the environment. We therefore assessed the ecotoxicity of sub-micron silica particles with and without encapsulated DNA in the context of surface and underground tracing of natural waterflows using standard ecotoxicity assays according to ISO standards. Acute toxicity tests were performed with (48 h), showing no effect on mobility at tracer concentrations below 300 ppm. Chronic ecotoxicological potential was tested with (green algae) (72 h) and species (7 d) with no effect observed at realistic exposure scenario concentrations for both silica particles with and without encapsulated DNA. These results suggest that large-scale environmental tracing with DNA-tagged silica particles in the given exposure scenarios has a low impact on aquatic species with low trophic levels such as select algae and planktonic crustaceans.
环境示踪剂是随流体运动的化学物质，可用于了解其来源和物质输运特性。由于具有高度特异性和敏感性的多示踪潜力，基于 DNA 的材料已被提出并用于示踪。为了大规模应用这种新材料，了解其对环境的影响很重要。因此，我们根据 ISO 标准，使用标准的生态毒性测定法，评估了亚微米二氧化硅颗粒在地表水和地下水示踪过程中，有无包裹 DNA 的情况下的生态毒性。采用 （48 h）进行急性毒性试验，在示踪剂浓度低于 300 ppm 时，对其迁移性没有影响。采用 （绿藻）（72 h）和 （7 d）进行慢性生态毒性潜力测试，在实际暴露场景浓度下，无论是有包裹 DNA 的还是没有包裹 DNA 的二氧化硅颗粒，均未观察到对两者的影响。这些结果表明，在给定的暴露情景下，使用 DNA 标记的硅粒子进行大规模环境示踪对低营养级的水生生物（如选定的藻类和浮游甲壳类动物）的影响较小。
