[Effect of Cd on remediation of DDT contaminated soil using different laccase forms].

This study investigated the effect of Cd on remediation of DDT contaminated soil using free laccase and immobilized reversed micelles laccase. The results show: degradation rates of ingredients of DDT and total DDT reduced with increasing of Cd concentration, the higher percentage of components in total DDT, the greater impact of Cd on them. Degradation rates of different components were p, p'-DDT > p, p'-DDD > o,p'-DDT > p, p'-DDE. When Cd concentration was 0, 0.5, 1 and 2 mg x kg(-1), the responding degradation rates of DDTs were measured at 50.68%, 32.50%, 14.92% and 13.40%, respectively. Compared with free laccase, degradation rate of total DDT by immobilized reversed micelles laccase nearly increased by 20% in soil without Cd and 30% in soil with 0.5 mg x kg(-1) Cd, implying that immobilized reversed micelles laccase is more effective for DDT degradation than free laccase.

Potential of different species for use in removal of DDT from the contaminated soils.

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its main metabolites, p,p'-DDD and p,p'-DDE (DDTs in this study included DDT, DDD and DDE), are frequently detected in agricultural soils even though its usage in agriculture was banned in 1980s or earlier. In this study, eleven plants including eight maize (Zea mays) cultivars and three forage species (alfalfa, ryegrass and teosinte) widely cultivated in China were grown in the soils spiked with DDTs to investigate their potential for removal of DDT from the contaminated soils. The plants varied largely in their ability to accumulate and translocate DDTs, with the bioconcentration factor (BCF; DDT concentration ratio of the plant tissues to the soils) ranging from 0.014 to 0.25 and the translocation factor (TF; DDT concentration ratio of the shoots to the roots) varying from 0.35 (Zea mays cv Chaotian-23) to 0.76 (Zea mays spp. mexicana). The amount of DDT phytoextraction ranged from 3.89mug (ryegrass) to 27.0mug (teosinte) and accounted for <0.1% of the total initial DDTs spiked in the soils. After 70d, the removal rates reached 47.1-70.3% of the total initial DDTs spiked in the soils with plants while that was only 15.4% in the soils without plant. Moreover, the higher removal rates of DDTs occurred at the first 20d of experiment, and then the removal rate decreased with time. The highest amount of DDTs phytoextracted was observed in teosinte, followed by Zea mays spp. mexicana, but the highest removal rate of DDTs was found in maize (Zea mays cv Jinhai-6). Even though phytoextraction is not the main removal process for DDTs, the plant species especially Zea mays cv Jinhai-6 showed high potential for removing DDTs from the contaminated soils.