Determination by molecular methods of genetic and epigenetic changes caused by heavy metals released from thermal power plants

Abstract

The heavy metals are released into the environment due to the activities such as meeting the increasing demand for energy, industrial activities, and agricultural pesticides. In many studies, the heavy metals have been proven to have genotoxic effects. As a result of burning the lignite coal in thermal power plants, the heavy metals of Cr, Fe, Mn, Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn, and Ni are spread into the environment within the ashes. In the present study, the gene expression levels were examined on the corn and wheat plants added with 500-m interval around the thermic power plant. For this purpose, the genes from 14-3-3 protein family, expression level of which increases under abiotic stress conditions, were analyzed. For the expression levels of plants, the 2-ΔΔCt values were calculated and then compared to 2-ΔΔCt values of β-actin gene, that is, the housekeeping gene. The heavy metal content analyses of the samples were carried out using ICP-MS, and it was determined that there were many heavy metals at higher amounts within the structure of samples having low level of gene expression. It has been understood that heavy metal stress causes a difference in gene expression level. The change introduced by heavy metal stress into the gene expression occurs in concrete in the translation products. The level of stress-induced gene expression, which is caused by heavy metals in the environment surrounding the plant, has been successfully determined by RT-PCR.