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The joint toxicity effect of five antibiotics and dibutyl phthalate to luminescent bacteria (Vibrio fischeri)

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Abstract

Antibiotics and phthalate esters are two kinds of emerging pollutants and are ubiquitous in the aquatic ecosystem. To date, few studies analyzed the combined toxicity of the mixtures of antibiotics and phthalate esters, and their joint toxicity effect mode remains unknown. Here, we investigated the single and joint toxicity of dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and five antibiotics, namely, oxytetracycline hydrochloride (OTC), chlortetracycline hydrochloride (CTC), sulfamethazine (SMZ), sulfamerazine (SMR), and sulfadiazine (SD), to luminescent bacteria of Vibrio fischeri. The median effect concentration (EC50) values of the test chemicals were ranked as CTC (6.67 mg/L) > OTC (25.12 mg/L) > SD (67.61 mg/L) > SMR (141.51 mg/L) > DBP (148.38 mg/L) > SMZ (245.07 mg/L). The joint toxicities of the binary mixtures of antibiotics and DBP were evaluated by the concentration addition (CA) and independent action (IA) models. The joint toxicity effects of CTC-DBP, OTC-DBP, SMZ-DBP, SMR-DBP, and SD-DBP all appeared to be synergism. Our study revealed that sulfonamides combined with DBP could be as toxic as or even more toxic than tetracycline. Thus, the joint toxicity effect should be considered when assessing the ecological risks of binary or multicomponent pollutants.

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Funding

This study received financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41473071, 41101287), the High Level Talent Project of “Six Talents Summit” in Jiangsu Province (JNHB-008), the Major Project of College Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (16KJA610001), Huaian BMATI (HAP201612), and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD, 164320H116).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Materials Cycling and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Sheng Wei, Fenghe Wang & Yajun Chen

  2. Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, School of Geography Science, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Fenghe Wang & Yajun Chen

  3. China National Institute of Standardization, Beijing, 100191, China

    Tao Lan

  4. Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, Nanjing, 210042, China

    Shengtian Zhang

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  1. Sheng Wei
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  2. Fenghe Wang
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  3. Yajun Chen
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  4. Tao Lan
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  5. Shengtian Zhang
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Correspondence to Fenghe Wang or Shengtian Zhang.

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Responsible editor: Cinta Porte

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Wei, S., Wang, F., Chen, Y. et al. The joint toxicity effect of five antibiotics and dibutyl phthalate to luminescent bacteria (Vibrio fischeri). Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 26504–26511 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2720-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2720-9

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