title: Genotoxicity testing and biomarker studies on surface waters: an overview of the techniques and their efficacies.
abstract: Rapid industrialization, use of modern agriculture practices, and fast urbanization vis-a-vis indiscriminate use of xenobiotics have led to the serious problems of water pollution in India and abroad. The complexicity of the pollutants in environmental samples demands a multitude of genotoxicity testing with increasing simplicity, sensitivity, and affordability. Moreover, various pollutants mutually affect their own toxic behavior, which complicates the problem of risk assessment. An overview, highlighting the genotoxicity testing system, such as Ames plate incorporation test, Ames fluctuation test, E. coli survival assay, Allium cepa toxicity/genotoxicity test, comet assay, and plasmid nicking assay, is presented in this article, and a comparison has been made to estimate the efficacy of these genotoxicity bioassays performed on some surface waters. Some work on toxicity biomarkers vis-a-vis studies on surface waters has also been included in the present review.
authors.affiliation: King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Shams
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tabrez
authors.forename: Shazi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shakil
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Urooj
authors.forename: Ghazi Abdullah
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Damanhouri
authors.forename: Adel Mohammad
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Abuzenadah
authors.forename: Masood
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ahmad
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000032:analysis*; D009152:Mutagenicity Tests; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical