Hydrogen isotope labeling unravels origin of soil-bound organic contaminant residues in biodegradability testing

Sophie Lennartz, Harriet A. Byrne, Steffen Kümmel, Martin Krauss and Karolina M. Nowak ()
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Sophie Lennartz: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
Harriet A. Byrne: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
Steffen Kümmel: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
Martin Krauss: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
Karolina M. Nowak: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract Biodegradability testing in soil helps to identify safe synthetic organic chemicals but is still obscured by the formation of soil-bound ‘non-extractable’ residues (NERs). Present-day methodologies using radiocarbon or stable (13C, 15N) isotope labeling cannot easily differentiate soil-bound parent chemicals or transformation products (xenoNERs) from harmless soil-bound biomolecules of microbial degraders (bioNERs). Hypothesizing a minimal retention of hydrogen in biomolecules, we here apply stable hydrogen isotope – deuterium (D) – labeling to unravel the origin of NERs. Soil biodegradation tests with D- and 13C-labeled 2,4-D, glyphosate and sulfamethoxazole reveal consistently lower proportions of applied D than 13C in total NERs and in amino acids, a quantitative biomarker for bioNERs. Soil-bound D thus mostly represents xenoNERs and not bioNERs, enabling an efficient quantification of xenoNERs by just measuring the total bound D. D or tritium (T) labeling could thus improve the value of biodegradability testing results for diverse organic chemicals forming soil-bound residues.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53478-w

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