Study on toxic effects of diesel exhaust particles, on some growth factors and cellular responses (protein production) in the bean plant seeds and pollen

Air pollution is a global problem that has negative effects on living organisms. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of water soluble fraction of diesel exhaust particles (DEP) on some growth factors and scale of bean’s protein. Bean plants were cultivated in experimental condition and sprayed with 30 ml of different concentrations of DEP (0.1, 0.3, 0.6 g/L) and control plants were sprayed with distilled water. Growth factors such as wet and dry weights, length of legume, legume dry weight, seed germination and leaf area in DEP-treated and the control groups were compared with SPSS software and variance analysis. Pollen and seed proteins were studied with electrophoresis method. DEP treatments caused to decrease wet weights of the all DEP-treated plants (P≤0.05), but the other factors (pod length, dry pod weight, pod weight, seed germination and leaf surface) only in the treated group with a 0.6 g/L DEP was significantly reduced. Seed protein profiles were similar in the experimental and control samples, but an increase in the density of a band with molecular mass of 62 kDa was observed in the group treated with 0.6 g/L of DEP. In protein profile of pollen, a band with molecular mass of 55 kDa was disappeared and a new band with molecular mass of 80 kDa was formed. With the consideration of reported detrimental effects for DEP, it seems that the bean plants are resistant that can be related to changes in protein banding profiles and cellular mechanisms of DEP detoxification.