Micropollutants under scrutiny: Project by Associate Professor Stiborová explores the role of symbiotic fungi in plant protection

How would you describe your project to a layperson in a few sentences? Why is it important?

Despite all the efforts of many governmental and non-governmental institutions, our environment is constantly exposed to the influence of foreign substances with toxic effects that are produced and then used in a number of industrial technologies, including the pharmaceutical industry, where the consumption of drugs in human medicine is increasing every year. Even though they are often present in very low concentrations (so-called micropollutants), due to repeated exposure, they can have a negative impact on the environment. Our project aims to evaluate how a mixture of emergent pharmaceutical, antimicrobial, and plasticizer micropollutants (a total of 35 compounds) are affecting the soil-plant system. We will monitor not only whether these micropollutants are degraded, accumulated and translocated into aboveground plant tissues, but also the impact of these micropollutants on microbial communities in the soil and the rhizosphere, the narrow zone of soil surrounding roots, and on endophytic microorganisms inside plants. Last but not least, we will focus on the stress response of plants in terms of changes in the content of micro- and macroelements as well as changes in the metabolome and proteome of plants. The influence of these micropollutants will be monitored separately and in combination with arbuscular mycorrhiza, which are obligate symbiotic fungi. We assume that arbuscular mycorrhiza will serve the plant as a “filter”, thereby reducing or influencing the transfer of micropollutants from the soil to the aboveground parts of plants.

What inspired you to choose this topic? Was it a specific challenge you wanted to address, or a kind of natural continuation of your previous work?

This issue is a natural continuation of our previous research as well as a cooperation with the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague’s (CZU)Department of Agroenvironmental Chemistry and Plant Nutrition. We already collaborated on two Czech Science Foundation grants. The first dealt with the impacts of long-term application of sewage sludge and farmyard manure on arable agricultural land with regard to changes in microbial communities, the occurrence of pathogenic microorganisms, and monitoring the increased occurrence of antibiotic resistance genes. The second dealt with the influence of various types of biochar on the soil ecosystem. Furthermore, both of our research units have extensive experience in detecting pollutants and observing how these various types of pollutants degrade in soil or accumulate in plants.

What is the main goal of your research?

This project aims to clarify how different mixtures of micropollutants affect the soil-plant ecosystem: whether their effect is additive, synergistic, or antagonistic and how arbuscular mycorrhiza affects their accumulation in plants. Ideally, we could learn to use symbiotic fungi to limit the transfer of micropollutants to plants and thus significantly improve the quality of agricultural production.

What do you think captured the selection committee’s attention the most?

I believe that it was the complexity of the whole approach, with input parameters including both the various mixtures of micropollutants and focus on the influence of arbuscular mycorrhiza, while the outcome parameters are set to deliver a detailed description of the effects of micropollutants on soil, the rhizosphere, and plants.

Will the project lead to any specific applications or technologies?

Yes. We assume that if our hypothesis (that arbuscular mycorrhiza can function as a natural “filter” for pollutants) is confirmed, project results can potentially lead to new recommendations for agronomic practices, thereby (at least partially) eliminating the harmful effects of monitored substances and contributing to better food safety.

What makes your project unique?

I believe this project is unique because of its comprehensive approach, where, using modern methods, we are striving to clarify and explain the mechanisms and factors that influence what is happening with the mixtures of pollutants in the soil-plant system. For example, during the project, special three-compartment rhizobox systems will be used. These boxes will allow us to simultaneously monitor the transport of micropollutants in soil, as well as in the rhizosphere, and in plant tissues Based on the results obtained, we should be able to evaluate, in detail, how individual groups of pollutants affect these ecological niches.

With whom are you collaborating on the project?

Three teams are involved in this project. Our team from UCT Prague’s Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology will coordinate the entire project and will be responsible for inoculating plants with arbuscular mycorrhiza, evaluating changes in microbial communities in soil, the rhizosphere, and the aboveground parts of plants as well as monitoring changes in soil enzyme activities. The co-applicant was Filip Mercl, Ph.D. from CZU’s Department of Agroenvironmental Chemistry and Plant Nutrition. His team will be responsible for cultivation experiments in rhizoboxes and containers, determining micropollutants, and monitoring changes in the plant ionome. Associate Professor Jaroslav Havlík, Ph.D., from CZU’s Department of Food Science also participates in the project. His team will monitor changes in the plant metabolome and perform proteomic analysis of selected samples in cooperation with the Czech Academy of Science’s BIOCEV research centre. This collaboration will allow us to take a multidisciplinary approach and evaluate a wide range of whole-system responses to continuous stress induced by micropollutants.

What obstacles or challenges do you anticipate during the project? Do you already have strategies for overcoming them?

One of the potential obstacles that we also considered in the risk analysis section of our proposal is the assessment of the impact of very low concentrations of pollutants, i.e. those that can commonly occur in surface waters used for irrigating agricultural crops. There is therefore a risk that these concentrations will be so low that, even with continuous long-term exposure, they will have minimal impact on disrupting soil or plants. However, in preliminary experiments, we have verified that even when using these kinds of low concentrations of pollutants, they accumulate and translocate to the aboveground parts of plants.

What brings you the most joy in working on this project?

The whole team is currently excited; we are planning to start experiments and are looking forward to our results. The project will also involve doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers, whose enthusiasm, energy, and innovative thinking constantly motivate us and inspire us to make progress. We believe that the data obtained will help explain many previously unknown facts about how combinations of various micropollutants affect soil and plants. Thanks to the Czech Science Foundation’s grant, we can use and combine the most advanced analytical, microbiological, and metabolomic analysis methods and thus obtain an overall picture of the impact of these substances on our environment.

What, theoretically, should happen with your research after the project is completed? (e.g., implementation of a technology or patent, follow-up research)

This project could lead to another research phase that would focus on implementing our results and verifying them in field experiments, which could be carried out, for example, directly on CZU’s testing fields and thus verify our results in real-world conditions.