ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the Microtox Toxicity Test System, highlights the four individual tests, and details topics such as assay validation, sediment toxicity, collection of water-, sediment-, and airborne samples, and photoenhanced chemicals. The basic test determines the acute toxicity of samples from surface water, ground water, wastewaters, leachates, and organic or aqueous sediment extracts by measuring the changes of light produced by bioluminescent bacteria. The chapter emphasizes new approaches and applications of the Microtox System and focus on methods for the collection and detection of environmental biotoxins used at the Environmental and Contaminants Research Center, Columbia, MO. The Microtox Toxicity Test System includes four toxicity tests: the Microtox Acute Toxicity Test, the Microtox Solid-Phase Toxicity Test, the Microtox Chronic Toxicity Test, and the Mutatox Genotoxicity Test. Mutatox determines the genotoxicity of samples in liquid phase from surface water, ground water, wastewaters, leachates, and organic or aqueous sediment extracts by measuring changes of light produced by bioluminescent bacteria.
