F-53B damages cell viability leading to impaired root development in Arabidopsis

The emerging contaminant chlorinated polyfluoroalkyl ether sulfonate (Cl-PFAES/F-53B) has been detected in many plant species, however, the impact of F-53B on the development in plants and the underpinning mechanisms remain largely unelucidated. In this study, we demonstrate by molecular biology, cytogenetics, and fluorescence microscopy mythologies that F-53B impairs cell viability leading to disrupted root development in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). We show that F-53B suppresses root length and the inhibitory effect is pronunanced at increasing concentrations. F-53B disrupts cell wall and microtubule-mediated cell plate formation and configuration in meristem cells, revealing its toxicity to cell division and cytoskeleton organization. F-53B induces cell death predominantly at the meristematic zone, however, gene exression and genetic studies indicate that F-53B does not trigger DNA double-strand breaks, implying a divergent effect on DNA stability across species. Moreover, we show that F-53B damages nuclei stability and viability, and induces Autophagy-Related 8 protein foci formation implying that it triggers autophagy-mediated cell responses. Taken together, this study provides cellular and molecular insights into the toxicity of F-53B to plant cells, which highlights its damage to agriculture and ecology security that deserve imperative environmental management actions. Environmental ImplicationF-53B has been detected in many plant species, which raises increasing concerns on its toxicity to plants and thus agriculture and ecology safety. However, the toxicity of F-53B to development in plants and the underpinning mechanisms remain largely unelucidated. Here, we demonstrate that F-53B damages nuclei stability and viability leading to cell death and impaired root development in the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana. Our study provides cytogenetic and molecular insights into the F-53B toxicity to plant cells, which highlights imperative environmental management actions and can be referenced for developing F-53B control and management policies. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=143 SRC="FIGDIR/small/653422v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (33K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@159b211org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1b99a95org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@53b964org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@b089be_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG One-sentence summaryF-53B triggers DNA double-strand break-free cell unviability leading to impaired meristematic cell division and root development in plants. HIGHLIGHTSO_LIF-53B impairs root development in Arabidopsis. C_LIO_LIF-53B prohibits mitotic cell division at root tips. C_LIO_LIF-53B damages cell viability predominantly at the meristematic zone in seedlings. C_LIO_LIF-53B does not induce DNA double-strand breaks in Arabidopsis seedlings. C_LIO_LIF-53B damages nuclei viability and stability in seedlings. C_LI