Procjena toksičnosti vode rijeke Save upotrebom običnog luka (Allium cepa L.) kao modelnog organizma

Increased urbanization and disposal of wastewater into rivers leads to ever-growing number of organic contaminants in aquatic ecosystems and the need for wastewater treatment. In the present study, the quality of Sava River collected at four locations (Lukavec, Rugvica, Jesenice i Hruscica) has been evaluated using Allium-test and certain biochemical parameters – contents of proteins, malondialdehide and carbonyls as well as activity of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, catalase and glutathione-S-transferase). Onion (Allium cepa L.) is often used as a model organism in cyto- and genotoxic studies because it has a small number of relatively large chromosomes (2n = 16). Samples of Sava River did not cause growth inhibition of onion roots, but they were genotoxic and the sample Jesenice was cytotoxic as well. The results of antioxidative enzyme activities and protein carbonilation showed that all samples of Sava River cause oxidative stress in onion roots and consequently damage to proteins. Due to the simplicity and low cost of the procedure as well as its sensitivity, onion is a suitable model organism for biomonitoring of surface waters.