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Effects of Phosphorus at Various Concentrations on Adsorption, Uptake and Transformation of Arsenate by Spirulina platensis
Received:December 23, 2014  
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KeyWord:Spirulina platensis;phosphorus;arsenic;adsorption;absorption;transformation
Author NameAffiliationE-mail
WANG Shu College of Resource and Environmental Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China  
XU Ping-ping College of Resource and Environmental Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China  
LIU Cong College of Resource and Environmental Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China  
WANG Ya College of Resource and Environmental Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China  
ZHANG Chun-hua Laboratory Centre of Life Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China  
GE Ying College of Resource and Environmental Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China yingge711@njau.edu.cn 
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Abstract:
      Arsenic(As) accumulation in Spirulina platensis may reduce the quality of health products produced from this microalga. Phosphorus(P) may influence the algal uptake and biotransformation of As. Thus it would be possible to reduce the accumulation of As in algae by manipulating P concentrations in growth media. To test this, we first sat up an experiment to examine the As(Ⅴ) adsorption and absorption characteristics of S. platensis under 0~300 μg·L-1 As(Ⅴ), and then conducted another experiment to study the effects of normal and low P levels on the As(Ⅴ) uptake, adsorption and biotransformation by S. platensis at 300 μg·L-1As(Ⅴ). Algal biomass was not significantly affected by As(Ⅴ) treatments, compared with the control. However, arsenic accumulation increased with As(Ⅴ) levels in the growth media. At 150~300 μg·L-1 As(Ⅴ), S. platensis contained 1.006 to 1.569 mg·kg-1, which exceeded the national standard(GB 16740-1997) for health(functional) foods(1.0 mg·kg-1). The As absorption was reduced by increasing P concentrations. At P levels of 1/10 normal or higher, P did not change As speciation in S. platensis, whereas only 3.28% of As was transformed to As(Ⅲ) at 1/25 normal P level. When P concentration was lowered to 1/50 of normal P level, As uptake increased significantly to 1.457 mg·kg-1, of which 9.24% and 37.35% were converted to As(Ⅲ) and DMA, respectively. In conclusion, decrease in P supply promoted the uptake, reduction and methylation of As(Ⅴ), though As(Ⅴ) was still the main As species in the microalgae. The majority of As was adsorbed on the surface of algal cells, suggesting that more than 95% of As in the S. platensis could be removed by washing with phosphate buffered saline(PBS) solution.