Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2006.08.023
Title (Primary) Development and validation of a new fluorescence-based bioassay for aquatic macrophyte species
Author Küster, A.; Altenburger, R.
Source Titel Chemosphere
Year 2007
Department BIOTOX
Volume 67
Issue 1
Page From 194
Page To 201
Language englisch
Keywords macrophytes; toxicity; fluorescence; herbicides; imaging-PAM
Abstract Bioassays with unicellular algae are frequently used as ecotoxicological test systems to evaluate the toxicity of contaminated environmental samples or chemicals. In contrast, aquatic macrophyte test systems are still rarely used as they are laborious to handle because species exhibit distinct ecological requirements. The aim of this study was to establish a fast and reproducible measuring system for aquatic macrophyte species to overcome those limitations for use. Thus, a newly developed pulse-amplitude modulated chlorophyll fluorometer (Imaging-PAM) was applied as an effect detection in short-term bioassays with aquatic macrophyte species. This multiwell-plate-based measuring device enables the incubation and measurement of up to 24 samples in parallel. The Imaging-PAM was used (i) to establish and validate the sensitivity of the test systems to three Photosystem II (PSII) inhibitors (atrazine, prometryn, isoproturon), (ii) to compare the test systems with established biotests for macrophytes and (iii) to define necessary time scales in aquatic macrophyte testing. The results showed that fluorescence-based measurements with the Imaging-PAM allow rapid and parallel analysis of large amounts of aquatic macrophyte samples and of toxicants effects of the PSII inhibitors tested on aquatic macrophytes. Measurements revealed a good correlation between obtained median effective concentrations (EC50s) for the new and the established biotest systems. Hence, the Imaging-PAM measuring device is a promising tool to allow fast chemical effect screening for high amounts of samples with little time and material and thus offers scope for high-throughput biotesting using aquatic macrophyte species.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=1983
Küster, A., Altenburger, R. (2007):
Development and validation of a new fluorescence-based bioassay for aquatic macrophyte species
Chemosphere 67 (1), 194 - 201 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2006.08.023