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Evaluation of the toxic effects of arsenite, chromate, cadmium, and copper using a battery of four bioassays

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

The sensitivities of four different kinds of bioassays to the toxicities of arsenite, chromate, cadmium, and copper were compared. The different bioassays exhibited different sensitivities, i.e., they responded to different levels of toxicity of each of the different metals. However, with the exception of the α-glucosidase enzyme activity, arsenite was the most toxic compound towards all the tested organisms, exhibiting the highest toxic effect on the seeds of Lactuca, with an EC50 value of 0.63 mg/L. The sensitivities of Lactuca and Raphanus were greater than the sensitivities of two other kinds of seeds tested. Therefore, these were the seeds appropriate for use in a seed germination assay. A high revertant mutagenic ratio (5:1) of Salmonella typhimurium was observed with an arsenite concentration of 0.1 μg/plate, indicative of a high possibility of mutagenicity. These different results suggested that a battery of bioassays, rather than one bioassay alone, is needed as a more accurate and better tool for the bioassessment of environmental pollutants.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a Yeungnam University Research Grant in 2011 and by the Basic Research Project of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, funded by the Ministry of Knowledge and Economy. The authors wish to thank Prof. R. Burlage for his peer review of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geologic Environment Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM), Daejeon, 305-350, Republic of Korea

    Kyung-Seok Ko & Pyeong-Koo Lee

  2. Department of Environmental Engineering, Yeungnam University, Kyungbuk, 712-749, Republic of Korea

    In Chul Kong

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  1. Kyung-Seok Ko
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  2. Pyeong-Koo Lee
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  3. In Chul Kong
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Correspondence to In Chul Kong.

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Ko, KS., Lee, PK. & Kong, I.C. Evaluation of the toxic effects of arsenite, chromate, cadmium, and copper using a battery of four bioassays. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 95, 1343–1350 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3724-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3724-2

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