Xiude Hua

Enantioselective bioactivity, acute toxicity and dissipation in vegetables of the chiral triazole fungicide flutriafol

The enantioselective bioactivity, acute toxicity and stereoselective degradation of the chiral triazole fungicide flutriafol in vegetables were investigated for the first time using the (R)-, (S)- and rac-flutriafol. The order of the bioactivity against five target pathogens (Rhizoctonia solani, Alternaria solani, Pyricularia grisea, Gibberella zeae, Botrytis cinerea) was found to be (R)-flutriafol>rac-flutriafol>(S)-flutriafol. The fungicidal activity of (R)-flutriafol was 1.49-6.23 times higher than that of (S)-flutriafol. The (R)-flutriafol also showed 2.17-3.52 times higher acute toxicity to Eisenia fetida and Scenedesmus obliquus than (S)-flutriafol. The stereoselective degradation of flutriafol in tomato showed that the active (R)-flutriafol degraded faster, resulting in an enrichment of inactive (S)-form, and the half-lives were 9.23 d and 10.18 d, respectively. Inversely, the (S)-flutriafol, with a half-life of 4.76 d, was preferentially degraded in cucumber. In conclusion, the systemic assessments of the triazole fungicide flutriafol stereoisomers on the enantioselective bioactivity, acute toxicity and environmental behavior may have implications for better environmental and ecological risk assessment.

Study on the stereoselective degradation of three triazole fungicides in sediment.

The stereoselective degradation behaviors of chiral triazole fungicides (hexaconazole, flutriafol and tebuconazole) in sediment were investigated under laboratory conditions. The enantiomers were completely separated by high-performance liquid chromatography on a cellulose tris(3-chloro-4-methylphenylcarbamate) (Lux Cellulose-2) column. The mean recoveries of hexaconazole, flutriafol and tebuconazole in sediment ranged from 86.7% to 105.9%. The methods were successfully applied for the enantioselective degradation analysis of fungicides in sediment. The results showed that the dissipation of hexaconazole, flutriafol and tebuconazole stereoisomers in sediment followed first-order kinetics (R(2)>0.95). The degradation rate of the enantiomers was different in sediment, and the (-)-enantiomer (t(1/2) was 86 days for hexaconazole, 139 for flutriafol and 136 for tebuconazole) degraded faster than the (+)-enantiomer (t(1/2) was 94 days for hexaconazole, 144 for flutriafol and 151 for tebuconazole) in native condition. The fungicides were degraded slowly, and no significant enantioselective degradation were observed under sterilized conditions. The results may hold promising implications for the environmental and ecological risk assessment of three important chiral triazole fungicides.

Detecting clothianidin residues in environmental and agricultural samples using rapid, sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and gold immunochromatographic assay

Two rapid, sensitive immunoassays based on monoclonal antibody for detecting clothianidin were developed and applied in agricultural samples: a quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and a semiquantitative gold immunochromatographic assay (GICA). Under optimal conditions, the half-maximal inhibition concentration (IC50) and the limit of detection (LOD, IC10) of clothianidin were 25.6 and 3.8 ng mL(-1) for ELISA. GICA using colloidal gold-MAb probe had a visual detection limit of 8 ng mL(-1), and the results can be judged by the naked eye within 10 min. The cross-reactivities of the immunoassays with its analogues were negligible except for that with dinotefuran. For the spiked agricultural samples, recoveries of 78.0 to 114.5% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 3.2 to 12.8% were achieved for ELISA and further evaluated by GICA. Furthermore, the results of ELISA and GICA for the authentic samples correlated well with those obtained by HPLC. Overall, the proposed ELISA and GICA are satisfactory for rapid, sensitive, and quantitative/semiquantitative detection of clothianidin residues in agricultural samples.

Enantioseparation and determination of triticonazole enantiomers in fruits, vegetables, and soil using efficient extraction and clean-up methods.

An efficient and novel enantioseparation and determination method was developed to quantify the enantiomers of chiral triazole fungicide triticonazole in fruit, vegetable, and soil samples. Under the optimal chromatographic conditions, the enantiomers of triticonazole were completely enantioseparated on a cellulose tris(3-chloro-4-methyl phenyl carbamate) column with relatively good resolution (Rs=14.04). Two cleanup methods were compared to quantify the enantiomers of triticonazole. The modified QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe) extraction procedure was achieved with sufficient recoveries and low detection limits. Good recoveries were obtained for the two enantiomers ranging from 84.1% to 103.2% in the six matrices, and the relative standard deviation values ranged from 1.7% to 8.4%. Under the optimal conditions, the obtained limits of detection (LODs) were in the range of 0.0012-0.0031mg/kg for the two enantiomers, and the limits of quantification (LOQs) were in the range of 0.0036-0.0091mg/kg, which were lower than the maximum residue levels established in Japan. In addition, the stereochemical structure of triticonazole enantiomers were determined for the first time using a combination of experimental and predicted electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra. The first eluted enantiomer was confirmed to be (+)-(S)-triticonazole. These results indicate that the proposed method is convenient and reliable for the enantioselective detection of triticonazole in authentic samples. The proposed method could be widely applicable for investigating the stereoselective degradation of triticonazole in food and environmental matrices, providing additional information for reliable risk assessment of triazole fungicides.

A bare-eye based one-step signal amplified semiquantitative immunochromatographic assay for the detection of imidacloprid in Chinese cabbage samples

A novel bare-eye based one-step signal amplified semi-quantitative immunochromatographic assay (SAS-ICA) was developed for detection of the pesticide imidacloprid. This method was based on competitive immunoreactions. Signal amplification was achieved by dual labeling of the test lines (TLs) on the strip using high affinity nanogold-biotinylated anti-imidacloprid mAb (BAb) and nanogold-streptavidin (Sa) probes. The relative color intensities of three TLs (TL-I, TL-II and TL-III) on a nitrocellulose (NC) membrane were used for direct visual analysis of the SAS-ICA strips, and could be used for semi-quantitation of analyte concentrations by observing what TLs disappeared in the amplification zone. Under optimized conditions, the following imidacloprid concentration ranges would be detected by visual examination of the SAS-ICA strip: 0-5ngmL(-1) (negative samples), and 5-25ngmL(-1), 25-250ngmL(-1), 250-1000ngmL(-1) and >1000ngmL(-1) (positive samples). The sensitivity (the visual detection limit (VDL) of TL-III) and semi-quantitative analytical capacity (when TL-III disappeared completely) of the SAS-ICA strip were 10-fold and 160-fold higher than those of traditional ICA, respectively. The developed SAS-ICA strip was applied to the analysis of spiked and authentic contaminated Chinese cabbage samples in the laboratory and under field conditions, and the results were validated by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This process could be adopted as a potential generous technique for all ICA-based detection methods.

Enantioseparation and determination of the chiral phenylpyrazole insecticide ethiprole in agricultural and environmental samples and its enantioselective degradation in soil

An effective method for the enantioselective determination of ethiprole enantiomers in agricultural and environmental samples was developed. The effects of solvent extraction, mobile phase and thermodynamic parameters for chiral recognition were fully investigated. Complete enantioseparation of the ethiprole enantiomers was achieved on a Lux Cellulose-2 column. The stereochemical structures of ethiprole enantiomers were also determined, and (R)-(+)-ethiprole was first eluted. The average recoveries were 82.7-104.9% with intra-day RSD of 1.7-8.2% in soil, cucumber, spinach, tomato, apple and peach under optimal conditions. Good linearity (R(2)≥0.9991) was obtained for all the matrix calibration curves within a range of 0.1 to 10 mg L(-1). The limits of detection for both enantiomers were estimated to be 0.008 mg kg(-1) in soil, cucumber, spinach and tomato and 0.012 mg kg(-1) in apple and peach, which were lower than the maximum residue levels established in Japan. The results indicate that the proposed method is convenient and reliable for the enantioselective detection of ethiprole in agricultural and environmental samples. The behavior of ethiprole in soil was studied under field conditions and the enantioselective degradation was observed with enantiomer fraction values varying from 0.494 to 0.884 during the experiment. The (R)-(+)-ethiprole (t1/2=11.6 d) degraded faster than (S)-(-)-ethiprole (t1/2=34.7 d). This report is the first describe a chiral analytical method and enantioselective behavior of ethiprole, and these results should be extremely useful for the risk evaluation of ethiprole in food and environmental safety.

Systemic stereoselectivity study of flufiprole: Stereoselective bioactivity, acute toxicity and environmental fate.

In this study, the stereoselectivity of flufiprole enantiomers in regards to their bioactivity, acute toxicity and environmental fate is reported for the first time. Four types of representative insects (Plutella xylostella, Nilaparvata lugens, Mythimna separata and Acyrthosiphon pisum) were used to investigate enantioselective bioactivity. Acute toxicities of flufiprole enantiomers toward two non-target organisms were also evaluated. Moreover, stereoselective degradation in four vegetables under field conditions was studied in response to food safety concerns. The bioactivity of (R)-flufiprole was 1.9-5.1 times higher than that of (S)-flufiprole. (R)-flufiprole also showed 3.7-5.7 times higher acute toxicity to Scenedesmus obliquus and Trichogramma japonicum Ashmead than (S)-flufiprole. Opposite stereoselective degradation of the two enantiomers was observed in pak choi, spinach cucumber, and tomato. (S)-flufiprole degraded faster in pak choi and spinach, resulting in an enrichment of (R)-isomer. By contrast, (R)-isomer was preferentially degraded in cucumber and tomato. Molecular simulation technology was used to illuminate the mechanism of enantioselective bioactivity. The Glide Score (-5.82kcal/mol) for (R)-isomer was better than that (-5.11kcal/mol) of (S)-isomer and this calculation showed (R)-flufiprole was more effective in pest control. Consequently, significant stereoselectivity of flufiprole enantiomers should be taken into account when assessing the environmental health risk of the pesticide.

Dual-labeled time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay for simultaneous detection of clothianidin and diniconazole in agricultural samples

Europium (Eu(3+)) and samarium (Sm(3+)) were used as fluorescent labels to develop a highly sensitive dual-labeled time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay (TRFIA) for detect clothianidin and diniconazole in food samples. Under the optimized assay conditions, 50% inhibition concentration (IC50) and the limit of detection (LOD, IC10) of clothianidin were 5.08 and 0.021 μg/L, and 13.14 and 0.029 μg/L for diniconazole. The cross-reactivities (CRs) were negligible except dinotefuran (9.4%) and uniconazole (4.28%). The recoveries of clothianidin and diniconazole ranged from 79.3% to 108.7% in food samples. The results of TRFIA for the authentic samples were validated by gas chromatography (GC) analyses, and a satisfactory correlations were obtained. These results indicated that the method was an alternative tool for simultaneous detection of clothianidin and diniconazole in food samples.

Biodegradation of propyzamide by Comamonas testosteroni W1 and cloning of the propyzamide hydrolase gene camH.

Propyzamide is a widely used benzamide herbicide for controlling weeds in lettuce, soybeans, cotton and other crops. An efficient propyzamide-degrading strain W1 was firstly isolated from activated sludge and identified as Comamonas testosteroni. A metabolite of propyzamide by strain W1 was firstly identified. The novel gene camH encoding a hydrolase that catalyzed the amide bond cleavage of propyzamide was cloned from strain W1. The gene contained an open reading frame of 1452 bp, the deduced amino acid sequence showed low identity with other amidases. The recombinant enzyme CamH was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 and purified. CamH displayed the highest activity at 30°C and pH 8.0 with propyzamide as the substrate. These results provide important knowledge on the fate of propyzamide in the biodegradation, and elucidate the biodegradation mechanism of propyzamide by the strain W1.

Quantum dots-based fluoroimmunoassay for the simultaneous detection of clothianidin and thiacloprid in environmental and agricultural samples

Quantum dots (QDs), luminescent semiconductor nanocrystals, have the potential to simplify the performance of multi-analyte analysis. In this work, a novel indirect competitive fluorescence-linked immunosorbent assay (FLISA) based on QDs for the detection of clothianidin and thiacloprid simultaneously in environmental and agricultural samples were performed in a single well of the microtiter plate. The QDs-labeled antibody conjugates, which consists of CdSe/ZnS core–shell QDs and polyclonal antibodies, were prepared through the 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) coupling method. Under optimal conditions, the half-maximal inhibition concentration (IC50) and the limit of detection (LOD, IC10) of the FLISA were 12.5 and 0.3 ng mL−1 for clothianidin, and 9.27 and 0.4 ng mL−1 for thiacloprid, respectively. The cross-reactivities of the FLISA with the analogues of clothianidin and thiacloprid were negligible except for dinotefuran (10.4% for clothianidin). The spiked recoveries were 73.3% to 113.1% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 2.7 to 13.3% for the detection of clothianidin and thiacloprid in river water, soil, cabbage, rice and tomato. Furthermore, the results of FLISA for the authentic samples correlated well with those obtained by HPLC. The proposed FLISA is a satisfactory tool for rapid, sensitive, and quantitative detection of two pesticides simultaneously in agricultural and environmental samples. This study provides a strategy for the development of QDs-based fluoroimmunoassay for the quantitative analysis of two pesticides.