Issue 12, 2007
From the journal:

Journal of Environmental Monitoring

Clear and present danger? The use of a yeast biosensor to monitor changes in the toxicity of industrial effluents subjected to oxidative colour removal treatments†

Patrick O. Keenan,‡*a   Andrew W. Knight,a   Nicholas Billinton,a   Paul A. Cahill,a   Ian M. Dalrymple,c   Christopher J. Hawkyard,b   Duncan Stratton-Campbellc  and  Richard M. Walmsleya  

* Corresponding authors

a Gentronix Limited, CTF Building, 46 Grafton Street, Manchester, UK
E-mail: p.keenan@lancaster.ac.uk
Fax: +44 1524 510217
Tel: +44 1524 595947

b Department of Textiles and Paper, School of Materials, The University of Manchester, Sackville Street, Manchester, UK

c C-Tech Innovation, Capenhurst Technology Park, Capenhurst, Chester, UK

Abstract

Discharges of coloured effluents into surface waters provide conspicuous evidence of the impact of industry on the environment. The textile industry is an obvious candidate for sources of such discharges. Conventional treatment methods appear to alleviate this situation by removing colour, however the affect on toxicity is less obvious. The objective of this study was to examine the changes in effluent toxicity during the course of two alternative wastewater treatment methods, ozonation and electrochemical oxidation, using a novel toxicity biosensor, GreenScreen EM®. The biosensor is capable of measuring both general acute toxicity (cytotoxicity), and more specifically genotoxicity, that is damage to a cell’s DNA structure, replication or distribution, caused by substances that may be mutagenic and/or carcinogenic. The biosensor utilises a modified strain of the brewers yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, incorporating a gene encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP) linked to the inducible promoter of the DNA damage responsive RAD54 gene. Upon exposure to a genotoxin, the production of GFP is up-regulated in parallel with RAD54, and the resulting cellular fluorescence provides a measure of genotoxicity. Acute toxicity is simultaneously determined by monitoring relative total growth of the cell culture during incubation. The results presented in this paper show that a reduction in colouration does not necessarily correspond to a reduction in effluent toxicity.

Graphical abstract: Clear and present danger? The use of a yeast biosensor to monitor changes in the toxicity of industrial effluents subjected to oxidative colour removal treatments

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B710406E
Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Jul 2007
Accepted
07 Sep 2007
First published
26 Sep 2007

J. Environ. Monit., 2007,9, 1394-1401

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Clear and present danger? The use of a yeast biosensor to monitor changes in the toxicity of industrial effluents subjected to oxidative colour removal treatments

P. O. Keenan, A. W. Knight, N. Billinton, P. A. Cahill, I. M. Dalrymple, C. J. Hawkyard, D. Stratton-Campbell and R. M. Walmsley, J. Environ. Monit., 2007, 9, 1394 DOI: 10.1039/B710406E

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