Abstract

Eruca sativa (Family: Brassicaceae) has gained an importance as a vegetable and spice, especially among Europeans. The genotoxicity of three heavy metals, viz. Zn, Pb and Cd was studied on E. sativa which showed a dose-dependent effect on radicle and coleoptile lengths. The radicle length was more affected as compared to coleoptiles length under all tested concentrations. The ranking of genotoxic potencies of three heavy metals was as in descending order: Cd²⁺> Pb²⁺≥ Zn²⁺. The high concentration of Cd and Pb at 150 mg/l showed genotoxic effects, thereby length (cm) of radicle and coleoptile were decreased at high concentration of Cd as compared to low, medium and high concentrations of Pb and Zn. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique was used for detection of genotoxicity produced by these metals. Twenty decamer primers were used, of which four did not amplify, three gave single and polymorphic band and the rest of thirteen primers generated upto 5 bands (an average of 4 bands per primer). Sixteen primers showed amplified products as monomorphic, whereas three primers (OPC-11, OPC-12, and OPC-13) showed unique extra band from seedlings treated with medium and high concentrations of Cd, Pb and Zn respectively. Genetic divergence among the seedlings was evaluated with dendrogram and similarity matrix value was obtained from 47.83 - 95.83%.

Key words: Environmental pollutant, genetic toxicity, heavy metals, mutation.