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Review
. 2023 Jun 25:879:163012.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163012. Epub 2023 Mar 24.

Application of amino acids nitrogen stable isotopic analysis in bioaccumulation studies of pollutants: A review

Yiye Jiang  1 , Yanhong Zeng  2 , Ruifeng Lu  1 , Yanting Zhang  1 , Ling Long  1 , Xiaobo Zheng  3 , Xiaojun Luo  4 , Bixian Mai  4
Affiliations
Review

Application of amino acids nitrogen stable isotopic analysis in bioaccumulation studies of pollutants: A review

Yiye Jiang et al. Sci Total Environ. .

Abstract

Accurately quantifying trophic positions (TP) to describe food web structure is an important element in studying pollutant bioaccumulation. In recent years, compound-specific nitrogen isotopic analysis of amino acids (AAs-N-CSIA) has been progressively applied as a potentially reliable tool for quantifying TP, facilitating a better understanding of pollutant food web transfer. Therefore, this review provides an overview of the analytical procedures, applications, and limitations of AAs-N-CSIA in pollutant (halogenated organic pollutants (HOPs) and heavy metals) bioaccumulation studies. We first summarize studies on the analytical techniques of AAs-N-CSIA, including derivatization, instrumental analysis, and data processing methods. The N-pivaloyl-i-propyl-amino acid ester method is a more suitable AAs derivatization method for quantifying TP. The AAs-N-CSIA application in pollutant bioaccumulation studies (e.g., Hg, MeHg, and HOPs) is discussed, and its application in conjunction with various techniques (e.g., spatial analysis, food source analysis, and compound tracking techniques, etc.) to research the influence of pollutant levels on organisms is summarized. Finally, the limitations of AAs-N-CSIA in pollutant bioaccumulation studies are discussed, including the use of single empirical values of βglu/phe and TDFglu/phe that result in large errors in TP quantification. The weighted βglu/phe and the multi-TDFglu/phe models are still challenging to solve for accurate TP quantification of omnivores; however, factors affecting the variation of βglu/phe and TDFglu/phe are unclear, especially the effect of pollutant bioaccumulation in organisms on internal AA metabolic processes.

Keywords: Amino acid; Bioaccumulation; Nitrogen isotopic composition; Trophic magnification factors; Trophic position.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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