COMPARISON OF CONVENTIONAL AND Vibrio fischeri BIOASSAYS FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER TOXICITY

Abstract

The bioassay based on the bioluminescence inhibition of Vibrio fischeri has been successfully applied to test municipal wastewater toxicity, in fact, the ISO 11348-3 standard was especially issued to prescribe the application of this test in wastewater toxicity assessment. However, this protocol cannot take into consideration virtual toxicity caused by turbidity or color of the sample tested. On the contrary, the kinetic version of the V. fischeri assay (ISO 21338:2010: Water quality-Kinetic determination of the inhibitory effects of sediment, other solids and colored samples on the light emission of Vibrio fischeri /kinetic luminescent bacteria test/) was developed to mitigate the drawbacks of the original protocol. Municipal wastewaters are often turbid/colored. Two versions of the V. fischeri bioluminescence inhibition assays were applied for municipal wastewater samples, before and after filtering. In most cases, the traditional version of the bioassay detected higher toxicity than the kinetic version, most possibly implying that reduced light emittance caused by solid particles and/or color also contributed to toxicity readings.

Luminescent Microbial Bioassays and Microalgal Biosensors as Tools for Environmental Toxicity Evaluation

“…(continued) Farré et al 2008Farré et al , 2002aHirmann et al 2007;Jurado et al 2008;Kungolos et al 2004;Lechuga et al 2016;Li et al 2008;Ma et al 2005;Muneer et al 1999;Neamtu et al 2004;Osano et al 2002;Papadopoulou and Samara 2002;Pérez et al 2001;Salizzato et al 1998a;Segura et al 2012;Yu et al 2013) Water: (Burga-Perez et al 2013;Corrêa et al 2009;Ellouze et al 2009;Farré and Barceló 2003;Fernández-Piñas et al 2014;Gouider et al 2010;Hernando et al 2007;Katsoyiannis and Samara 2007;Kováts et al 2012;…”

“…Whether using a panel or a single naturally bioluminescence organism, the suitability of these bioassays is more than demonstrated, not only at level of known particular/group of pollutants but also when a complex environmental matrix is assessed in which a range of distinct pollutants might be contained within. Applications of direct environmental samples with luminescent prokaryotic organisms have been extensively studied during the last decades including soil (Bispo et al 1999), marine (Hernando et al 2007, surface (Ocampo-Duque et al 2008), andgroundwater (Molins-Delgado et al 2016;Wolska et al 2006) samples as well as municipal or industrial wastewater effluents (Corrêa et al 2009;Ellouze et al 2009;Farré and Barceló 2003;Farré et al 2002b;Gouider et al 2010;Katsoyiannis and Samara 2007;Kováts et al 2012;la Farré et al 2001;Li et al 2008;Nohava et al 1995;Saddoud et al 2009;Somensi et al 2010;Wang et al 2002) and sediments (Papadopoulou and Samara 2002;Salizzato et al 1998a;Zabetoglou et al 2002).…”

Luminescent Microbial Bioassays and Microalgal Biosensors as Tools for Environmental Toxicity Evaluation

“…Water : (Burga-Perez et al 2013;Corrêa et al 2009;Ellouze et al 2009;Farré and Barceló 2003;Fernández-Piñas et al 2014;Gouider et al 2010;Hernando et al 2007; Katsoyiannis and Samara 2007;Kováts et al 2012;la Farré et al 2001;Molins-Delgado et al 2016;Nohava et al 1995;Ocampo-Duque et al 2008;Saddoud et al 2009;Somensi et al 2010;Wang et al 2002;Wolska et al 2006) Soil: (Bispo et al 1999).…”

“…Whether using a panel or a single naturally bioluminescence organism, the suitability of these bioassays is more than demonstrated, not only at level of known particular/group of pollutants, but also when a complex environmental matrix is assessed in which a range of distinct pollutants might be contained within. Applications of direct environmental samples with luminescent prokaryotic organisms have been extensively studied during the last decades including soil (Bispo et al 1999), marine (Hernando et al 2007, surface (Ocampo-Duque et al 2008) and groundwater (Molins-Delgado et al 2016;Wolska et al 2006) samples as well as municipal or industrial wastewater effluents (Corrêa et al 2009;Ellouze et al 2009;Farré and Barceló 2003;Farré et al 2002b;Gouider et al 2010;Katsoyiannis and Samara 2007;Kováts et al 2012;la Farré et al 2001;Li et al 2008;Nohava et al 1995;Saddoud et al 2009;Somensi et al 2010;Wang et al 2002) and sediments (Papadopoulou and Samara 2002;Salizzato et al 1998a;Zabetoglou et al 2002).…”

Proposed method for controlling turbid particles in solid-phase bioluminescent toxicity measurement

“…Microtox ® Bioassay is a method originally designed for aqueous samples, so it has been reported to have relatively high accuracy and reliability for liquid samples test. However, some questionable results have been reported when it is used to test solid samples, mainly due to the blocking of light by turbid particles (Parvez et al 2006;Lappalainen et al 1999Lappalainen et al , 2001Campisi et al 2005;Ashworth et al 2010, Kovats et al 2012Burga Perez et al 2013, Xiaoyan et al 2014. Volpi-Ghirardini et al (2009) stated that previous research had proven that physical interference of particles with bioluminescence could be a confounding factor in solid-phase sample test (Brouwer et al 1990;Tung et al 1990;Bulich et al 1992;Svenson et al 1994;3 Benton et al 1995;Brouwer et al 1995;Ringwood et al 1997;Onorati et al 1998;Volpi-Ghirardini et al 1999).…”