Biotransformation of benzo[a]pyrene and other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic analogs by several green algae and other algal species under gold and white light.

This laboratory has shown that the metabolism of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), a carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), by a freshwater green alga, Selenastrum capricornutum, under gold light proceeds through a dioxygenase pathway with subsequent conjugation and excretion. This study was undertaken to determine: (1) the effects of different light sources on the enzymatic or photochemical processes involved in the biotransformation of BaP over a dose range of 5-1200 mg/l; (2) the phototoxicity of carcinogenic PAHs and mutagenic quinones to a green alga; (3) the ability of other algal systems to metabolize BaP. Cultures were exposed to different doses of BaP for 2 days at 23 degrees C under gold, white or UV-A fluorescent light on a diurnal cycle of 16 h light, 8 h dark. Under gold light, metabolites of BaP produced by Selenastrum capricornutum were the dihydrodiols of which the 11,12-dihydrodiol was the major metabolite. Under white light, at low doses, the major metabolite was the 9,10-dihydrodiol. With increasing dose, the ratio of dihydrodiols to quinones decreased to less than two. With increasing light energy output, from gold to white to UV-A in the PAH absorbing region, BaP quinone production increased. Of other carcinogenic PAHs studied, only 7H-dibenz[c,g]carbazole was as phototoxic as BaP while 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene, dibenz[a,j]acridine and non-carcinogenic PAHs, anthracene and pyrene, were not phototoxic. The 3,6-quinone of BaP was found to be highly phototoxic while quinones that included menadione, danthron, phenanthrene-quinone and hydroquinone were not. The data suggest that the phototoxicity of BaP is due to photochemical production of quinones; the 3,6-quinone of BaP is phototoxic and is probably the result of the production of short lived cyclic reactive intermediates by the interaction of light with the quinone. Lastly, only the green algae, Selenastrum capricornutum, Scenedesmus acutus and Ankistrodesmus braunii almost completely metabolized BaP to dihydrodiols. The green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, the yellow alga Ochromonas malhamensis, the blue green algae Anabaena flosaquae and euglenoid Euglena gracilis did not metabolize BaP to any extent. The data indicate that algae are important in their ability to degrade PAHs but the degradation is dependent on the dose of light energy emitted and absorbed, the dose of PAHs to which the algae are exposed, the phototoxicity of PAHs and their metabolite(s) and the species and strain of algae involved. All of these factors will be important in assessing the degradation and detoxification pathways of recalcitrant PAHs by algae.