Vibrio fischeri bioluminescence inhibition assay for ecotoxicity assessment: A review (original) (raw)
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Environment International, 2006
Evaluation of biological effects using a rapid, sensitive and cost effective method can indicate specific information on toxicity/ecotoxicity. Since assays based on animals, plants and algae are expensive, time consuming and require large sample volume, recent studies have emphasized the benefits of rapid, reproducible and cost effective bacterial assays for toxicity screening and assessment. This review focuses on a bacterial assay, i.e., Vibrio fischeri bioluminescence inhibition assay, which is often chosen as the first test in a test battery based on speed and cost consideration. The test protocol is simple and was originally applied for aqueous phase samples or extracts. The versatility of the assay has increased with subsequent modification, i.e., the kinetic assay for turbid and colored samples and the solid phase test for analyzing sediment toxicity. Researchers have reported the Vibrio fischeri bioluminescence assay as the most sensitive across a wide range of chemicals compared to other bacterial assays such as nitrification inhibition, respirometry, ATP luminescence and enzyme inhibition. This assay shows good correlations with other standard acute toxicity assays and is reported to detect toxicity across a wide spectrum of toxicants.
International Microbiology, 2003
In order to investigate possible synergistic or antagonistic (more or less than additive) toxicity effects, mixtures of chemicals were tested in water using a microbial bioassay. Ten toxicants (3,4-dichloroaniline, 3,5dichlorophenol, cadmium, chromium, copper, Lindane, linear alkylbenzene sulphonate, pentachlorophenol, toluene, zinc) were chosen on the basis of their common occurrence in industrial effluents within local waste water treatment plants. These toxicants also cover a wide range of modes of toxic action, namely, polar and non-polar narcosis, membrane disruption, respiratory disruption, uncouplers of oxidative phosphorylation, biochemical disruption and enzyme inhibition. Efficient screening for possible combination toxicity between toxicants involved testing the chemicals both singly and in triplet combinations. The triplets were based on four replicates of a balanced incomplete block design (BIB). A standardised Vibrio fischeri rapid toxicity bioluminescence assay was used. The combinations tested showed that only one mixture was found to be significantly more toxic than expected from the pure singletoxicant results. Two triplets were significantly less toxic. Further tests on the more toxic triplet showed that the effect was due to only one of the 45 pairs originally screened. It is concluded that synergistic effects in combinations of toxicants are rather rare in bioluminescence systems utilising common effluents discharged to sewer.
Toxicity assessment of chlorinated secondary effluents by the Vibrio fischeri bioluminescence assay
Environmental Health Risk V, 2009
The objective of this manuscript was to assess the toxicity formation on biological treated wastewater from a municipal wastewater treatment plant, after a chlorination-dechlorination disinfection process. Water was monitored by means of physicochemical and ecotoxicological parameters, with the use of Vibrio fischeri bioassay. Since a dechlorination process removed residual chlorine, the positive correlation between toxicity values and chlorine concentrations suggested the formation of toxic disinfection by-products (DBPs). Statistically significant differences could be observed for toxicity values according to total carbon, total inorganic carbon, total nitrogen, chlorine, and pH. However, total organic carbon, chemical oxygen demand, electrical conductivity and turbidity had no statistical significance on toxicity formation. Three second-order polynomial equations were fitted between with total carbon and total nitrogen concentrations as independent variables, and EC50 as a dependent one.
Chemosphere, 2003
The possibility of using organic solvents (OSs) to increase the susceptibility of bioluminescent microorganisms in a bioassay for assessing the toxicity of chemicals dissolved in water was investigated. To conduct the tests acetonitrile, dimethyl sulfoxide, ethanol, methanol, and isopropanol were used as OSs and Cd, Hg, and Zn as reference toxicants. The addition of OSs modified the toxicity of the three metals to Vibrio harveyi, according on the bioluminescence assay used. The sensitivity of the luminescence bioassay for Hg increased in the presence of the five OSs, thus indicating a greater toxic effect. However, the sensitivity of the assay for the other two metals, Cd and Zn, increased or decreased (lesser toxic effect) depending on the concentration at which the OSs were used. No correlation was observed between the concentration of the five OSs and the toxicity of the three reference toxicants. From this it can be deduced that none of these OSs could be recommended for increasing generically the sensitivity of toxicity biotests using V. harveyi.
Correlation of Two Bioluminescence and One Fluorogenic Bioassay for the Detection of Toxic Chemicals
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 2002
The linear correlation between the EC 50 values of 50 substances obtained in luminescence bioassays using Vibrio fischeri and Vibrio harveyi and in a 6uorogenic bioassay using Escherichia coli was investigated. As a result, a signi5cant correlation was found between the said values in all three toxicity tests. The bioassay using V. harveyi had a sensitivity similar to that of the 6uorogenic bioassay, and the bioassay using V. fischeri was the least sensitive of all. The sensitivity of the three bioassays for each of the tested substances, chie6y heavy metals, organic solvents, orgnochlorated compounds, and pesticides, di4ered in the majority of the cases. The three bioassays were quanti5ed using the same laboratory apparatus and the data were processed in the same way. The possibility of designing a battery of toxicity tests that can be performed using the same apparatus but di4erent organisms and parameters is discussed.
Frontiers in Microbiology, 2016
Several bacteria-based assays, notably Vibrio fischeri luminescence assays, are often used as environmental monitoring tool for toxicity in sediments that may serve as both sinks and secondary source of contamination in aquatic ecosystems. In this study, we used 30-s kinetic bioassays based on V. fischeri to evaluate the toxicity associated to sediments from five localities with different contamination inputs (Morava River and its tributary Drevnice River in the southeastern part of the Czech Republic). Toxicity assessed as half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC 50) over the course of a year-long sampling was compared in bottom sediments and freshly trapped particulate material. Standard approach based on testing of aqueous elutriates was compared with toxicity of whole sediments (contact suspension toxicity). Bottom sediments showed lower toxicity compared to freshly trapped suspended materials in all cases. On the other hand, standardized elutriates induced generally weaker effects than suspended sediments likely due to losses during the extraction process. Toxicity generally increased during winter reaching maximum peaks in early spring months in all five sites. Total organic carbon (TOC) was found to be highly correlated with toxic effects. Toxicity from sites with direct industrial and agricultural water inputs also correlated with concentrations of metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Single time point sampling followed by the extraction and testing of elutriates, do not truly reflect the spatial and temporal variability in natural sediments and may lead to underestimation of ecotoxic risks.
Water environment research : a research publication of the Water Environment Federation, 2008
The aim of this study was to compare two alternative toxicity assessment methods to determine wastewater toxicity and predict treatment plant process upsets. The toxicity of two synthetic organic compounds (triclosan and 4-n-nonylphenol), which are commonly detected in municipal wastewater, and municipal and industrial wastewaters with different heavy metals content were evaluated by the nitrification inhibition assay and bioluminescence toxicity test. Comparison between both assays confirmed that Vibrio fischeri is generally more sensitive than autotrophic bacteria, and, if not calibrated, the bioluminescence method tends to overestimate toxic effects on activated sludge biomass. The nitrification inhibition assay appears to predict plant process upsets more accurately. Both methods showed a significant toxicity decrease through treatment that could be partially attributed to the significant heavy metals removal obtained by primary and secondary treatment. A good correlation for th...