Detection of DNA adducts in declining hop plants grown on fields formerly treated with heptachlor, a persistent insecticide Original Research Article

Hop decline was observed in Alsace, eastern France, in reparcelled sugar beet fields formerly abundantly treated with an insecticide, heptachlor. Leaves were collected from ‘declining hops’ grown in an heptachlor-contaminated area and from ‘healthy hops’ grown in a soil not contaminated by heptachlor. These two samples came from hop vines treated with other usual pesticides. ‘Control’ hop leaves came from soil neither treated with pesticide nor contaminated with heptachlor. Hypermodified nucleotides (DNA adducts) were detected using the 32P-postlabelling method. No detectable DNA adducts were found in the ‘control’ specimen, whereas eight adducts were detected in the ‘healthy hops’ specimen, probably due to the usual pesticide treatment. However, 16 adducts, nine of which were new adducts, could be detected in the ‘declining hops’ specimen. It may therefore be supposed that the presence of these hypermodified nucleotides perturbs gene expression and so contributes to the hop decline. In addition, to confirm the genotoxicity of heptachlor, it is shown that it induces DNA adducts in bean-cell suspension culture as well. Finally, it is proposed, in the case of alternate cultures scheduled in fields which were formerly treated with pesticides, adapted to other cultures, that particular attention should be given to the history of the soils.