Citation:

ZHANG, H. AND E. J. WEBER. ELUCIDATING THE ROLE OF ELECTRON TRANSFER MEDIATORS IN REDUCTIVE TRANSFORMATIONS IN NATURAL SEDIMENTS. Presented at 234th National American Chemical Society Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19 - 23, 2007.

Impact/Purpose:

This task is divided into four major research areas: (1) Development of computational tools and databases for screening-level modeling of the environmental fate of organic chemicals; (2) Metabolism of xenobiotics: Enhancing the development of a metabolic simulator; (3) Metabonomics: The use of advanced analytical tools to identify toxicity pathways; and (4) Software infrastructure to support development and application of transformation/metabolic simulators.

For many chemicals, multiple transformation/metabolic pathways can exist. Consequently, transformation/metabolic simulators must utilize transformation rate data for prioritization of competing pathways. The prioritization process thus requires the integration of reliable rate data. When this data is absent, it is necessary to generate a database with metabolic and transformation rate constants based on: (1) experimentally measured values, including those requiring the use of advanced analytical techniques for measuring metabolic rate constants in vivo and in vitro; (2) rate constants derived from SPARC and mechanistic-based QSAR models; and (3) data mined from the literature and Program Office CBI. A long-term goal of this project is to build this database. This information will be used to enhance the predictive capabilities of the transformation/metabolic simulators. As indicated previously, exposure genomics, which provide early signs of chemical exposure based on changes in gene expression, will be used to guide chemical fate and metabolism studies. The incorporation of exposure genomics into fate studies will provide information concerning (1) the minimal concentrations at which biological events occur; and (2) the identification of biologically relevant chemicals(s) in mixtures.

The capability of categorizing chemicals and their metabolites based on toxicity pathway is imperative to the success of the CompTox Research Program. Metabonomics, which is the multi-parametric measurement of metabolites in living systems due to physiological stimuli and/or genetic modification, provides such a capability. The application of metabonomics to toxicity testing involves the elucidation of changes in metabolic patterns associated with chemical toxicity based on the measurement of component profiles in biofluids, and enables the generation of spectral profiles for a wide range of endogenous metabolites. Metabolic profiles can provide a measure of the real outcome of potential changes as the result of xenobiotic exposure.

Description:

To study the identity and reactivity of electron transfer mediators (ETMs) in natural sediments, the reduction kinetics of a glass bead-azo dye complex were measured in abiotic and biotic model systems, as well as in natural sediments. In abiotic model systems, the bead-dye complex was rapidly reduced by chemically reduced quinoid model compounds and NOMs. The presence of Fe(II)/goethite had no effect on reactivity. In biotic model systems, a high density of microbial cells reduced the bead-dye complex. The addition of NOMs, which had not been chemically reduced, increased the rate and extent of reduction of the bead-dye complex. In sediment systems, the bead-dye reduction rates correlated well with organic carbon (OC) contents of both the sediments and their supernatants. These results support the hypothesis that the predominant ETMs in reducing sediments are quinoid functional groups associated with dissolved OC that can be repeatedly reduced through microbial processes.

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