Assessment Of Roadside Air Quality InThe Tokyo Metropolitan Area ByA Novel Biomonitoring Method

In order to evaluate air quality in Tokyo, a novel biomonitoring method has been developed. This paper aimed to utilize the plant comet assay for determining the integrated effect of urban air quality and environmental stresses on the three plant species: Ginkgo, Pothos, and Periwinkle. The combination of air pollutants caused by traffic was suspected as the main stressor of DNA damage in the urban biota. Therefore, the different patterns between DNA migration ratios of the selected test species in roadside and non-roadside areas in an urban environment were observed. This study also focused on the change in the degree of DNA damage depending on the exposure time due to the environmental stresses, including the additional effect induced by roadside air pollutants.