Enantioselective Toxic Effects of Prothioconazole toward Scenedesmus obliquus .

Prothioconazole (PTC) is a broad-spectrum triazole fungicide with one asymmetric center and consists of two enantiomers, R -(-)-PTC and S -(+)-PTC. To address the concern of its environmental safety, the enantioselective toxic effects of PTC on Scendesmus obliquus ( S. obliquus ) were investigated. PTC racemates ( Rac -PTC) and enantiomers exhibited dose-dependent acute toxicity effects against S. obliquus at a concentration from 1 to 10 mg·L ^-1 . The 72 h-EC50 value of Rac -, R -(-)-, and S -(+)-PTC is 8.15, 16.53, and 7.85 mg·L ^-1 , respectively. The growth ratios and photosynthetic pigment contents of the R -(-)-PTC treatment groups were higher than the Rac - and S -(+)-PTC treatment groups. Both catalase (CAT) activities and esterase activities were inhibited in the Rac - and S -(+)-PTC treatment groups at high concentrations of 5 and 10 mg·L ^-1 , and the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) were elevated, which exceeded the levels in algal cells for the R -(-)-PTC treatment groups. PTC could disrupt the cell morphology of S. obliquus and induce cell membrane damage, following the order of S -(+)-PTC ≈ Rac -PTC > R -(-)-PTC. The enantioselective toxic effects of PTC on S. obliquus provide essential information for its ecological risk assessment.