title: Evaluation of the toxic effects of arsenite, chromate, cadmium, and copper using a battery of four bioassays.
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 EC(50) 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.
authors.affiliation: Geologic Environment Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM), Daejeon, 305-350, Republic of Korea. kyungsok@kigam.re.kr
authors.forename: Kyung-Seok
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: Pyeong-Koo
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: In Chul
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Kong
mesh_terms: D018053:Arsenites / Q000633:toxicity*; D001681:Biological Assay / Q000379:methods*; D002104:Cadmium / Q000633:toxicity*; D002840:Chromates / Q000633:toxicity*; D003300:Copper / Q000633:toxicity*; D010944:Plants / Q000187:drug effects; D012486:Salmonella typhimurium / Q000187:drug effects; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D018053:Arsenites; D002840:Chromates; D002104:Cadmium; D003300:Copper; C015001:arsenite