Effects of continuous exposure to power frequency electric fields on soybean Glycine max

2019 · Mixed · Low evidence

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MixedLow evidencePaper 1849

Study snapshot

Publicationmanual · 2019

Study typeanimal

Reported directionMixed

Evidence ratingLow

Abstract

Effects of continuous exposure to power frequency electric fields on soybean Glycine max Li X, Liu X, Wan B, Li X, Li M, Zhu H, Hua H. Effects of continuous exposure to power frequency electric fields on soybean Glycine max. J Environ Radioact. 2019 Apr 5;204:35-41. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2019.03.026. Abstract With the increasing density of high voltage transmission systems, the potential risks and hazards of environmental electric fields (EFs) generated by these systems to surrounding organisms is becoming a source of public concern. To evaluate the effect of environmental EFs on plants, we used soybean as a model and systematically evaluated the effect of continuous exposure to different intensities (0 kV/m, 2 kV/m, and 10 kV/m) of power frequency EFs on agronomic characters, yield, nutrient contents, protective enzyme activities, and gene transcription. We found that the effects on soybean were more pronounced when plants were exposed to EF during development (especially at the seedling stage) than when they were exposed at maturity. The functional leaf number, stem diameter, plant dry weight, and pod number were largely unaffected by EF, while the germination rate and protective enzyme activities increased with increasing EF intensity. In plants exposed to low-intensity EF (2 kV/m), some agronomic characters, including chlorophyll content, plant height, and bean dry weight, as well as the soluble sugar and total protein contents, were significantly higher than those of plants exposed to high-intensity EF (10 kV/m) and control plants (0 kV/m). Through transcriptome analysis, we found that 2,977 genes were significantly up-regulated and 1,462 genes were down-regulated when plants were exposed to EF. These differentially expressed genes mainly encode ribosome proteins and related enzymes involved in carbon metabolism pathway, providing a novel perspective for understanding molecular mechanisms underpinning the responses to EF stress in soybean. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Machine Enhanced Logic

AI evidence extraction

Structured fields below were generated from the paper’s abstract and metadata to make the evidence easier to inspect. Automated extraction may be incomplete or incorrect; verify important details against the original paper.

Study typeanimal

Effect directionmixed

PopulationSoybean (Glycine max) plants

Sample sizeNot supplied

ExposureELF · continuous exposure during development and/or at maturity

Evidence strengthLowConfidence: 74% · Peer reviewed: yes

Main findings

Effects were more pronounced when exposure occurred during development (especially seedling stage) than at maturity. Functional leaf number, stem diameter, plant dry weight, and pod number were largely unaffected, while germination rate and protective enzyme activities increased with increasing electric field intensity. Low-intensity exposure (2 kV/m) was associated with significantly higher chlorophyll content, plant height, bean dry weight, soluble sugar, and total protein compared with high-intensity (10 kV/m) and control (0 kV/m); transcriptome analysis identified 2,977 up-regulated and 1,462 down-regulated genes under EF exposure.

Outcomes measured

Agronomic characters (e.g., functional leaf number, stem diameter, plant dry weight, pod number, plant height)
Yield-related measures (e.g., bean dry weight, pod number)
Germination rate
Chlorophyll content
Nutrient contents (soluble sugar, total protein)
Protective enzyme activities
Gene transcription / transcriptome (differentially expressed genes; carbon metabolism pathway; ribosome proteins)

View raw extracted JSON

{
  "study_type": "animal",
  "exposure": {
    "band": "ELF",
    "source": "high voltage transmission systems",
    "frequency_mhz": null,
    "sar_wkg": null,
    "duration": "continuous exposure during development and/or at maturity"
  },
  "population": "Soybean (Glycine max) plants",
  "sample_size": null,
  "outcomes": [
    "Agronomic characters (e.g., functional leaf number, stem diameter, plant dry weight, pod number, plant height)",
    "Yield-related measures (e.g., bean dry weight, pod number)",
    "Germination rate",
    "Chlorophyll content",
    "Nutrient contents (soluble sugar, total protein)",
    "Protective enzyme activities",
    "Gene transcription / transcriptome (differentially expressed genes; carbon metabolism pathway; ribosome proteins)"
  ],
  "main_findings": "Effects were more pronounced when exposure occurred during development (especially seedling stage) than at maturity. Functional leaf number, stem diameter, plant dry weight, and pod number were largely unaffected, while germination rate and protective enzyme activities increased with increasing electric field intensity. Low-intensity exposure (2 kV/m) was associated with significantly higher chlorophyll content, plant height, bean dry weight, soluble sugar, and total protein compared with high-intensity (10 kV/m) and control (0 kV/m); transcriptome analysis identified 2,977 up-regulated and 1,462 down-regulated genes under EF exposure.",
  "effect_direction": "mixed",
  "limitations": [],
  "evidence_strength": "low",
  "confidence": 0.74,
  "peer_reviewed_likely": "yes",
  "keywords": [
    "power frequency",
    "electric fields",
    "ELF",
    "high voltage transmission",
    "soybean",
    "Glycine max",
    "kV/m",
    "germination",
    "protective enzymes",
    "chlorophyll",
    "yield",
    "transcriptome",
    "gene expression",
    "carbon metabolism"
  ],
  "suggested_hubs": [
    {
      "slug": "occupational-exposure",
      "weight": 0.25,
      "reason": "Exposure context involves electric fields from high voltage transmission systems (environmental/near-infrastructure)."
    }
  ]
}

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AI-extracted fields are generated from the abstract and metadata and may be incomplete or incorrect. This material is for informational purposes and is not medical advice.

Identifiers and source

DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2019.03.026
PubMed: Not supplied

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