Oil induces chlorophyll deficient propagules in mangroves

What is it about?

In Australia, some trees of the mangrove, Avicennia marina, growing in a chronic oil polluted site, produce chlorophyll deficient (albino) propagules. We tested the hypothesis that albinism was due to an oil-induced mutantallelethatcontrolsphotosynthesis.Wedeterminedwhethertherearegeneticdifferencesbetweennormal and chlorophyll deficient propagules. Four gene regions (nuclear 18S–26S cistron; chloroplast - trnH-psbA, rsp16 and matK) were sequenced and analysed for normal and albino propagules. Mutations occurred in both nuclear (ITS) and coding chloroplast (matK) genes of albino propagules. There were 10 mutational differences between normalandalbinopropagulesinthematKsamples.Analysisofmolecularvariation(AMOVA)ofthematKdataset indicated highly significant genetic differentiation between normal and albino propagules. Our study suggests for the first time that PAHs from a chronic oil polluted site resulted in mutations in both nuclear and chloroplast genes, resulting in the production of albino propagules.

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Why is it important?

We showed that oil pollution causes long term deleterious effects on the environment