Estimating the toxicities of organic chemicals to bioluminescent bacteria and activated sludge

• Published in: Water research (Oxford) 2002-10, Vol.36 (17), p.4406-4414
• Main Authors: Ren, Shijin, Frymier, Paul D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activated sludge; Applied sciences; Bacteria - drug effects; Biological and medical sciences; Biological treatment of waters; Bioluminescent bacteria; Biotechnology; Environment and pollution; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General purification processes; Industrial applications and implications. Economical aspects; Kow; Luminescent Measurements; Organic Chemicals - toxicity; Pollution; QSAR; Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship; Sewage - microbiology; Shk1; Toxicity; Toxicity Tests; Wastewaters; Water - chemistry; Water Pollutants - toxicity; Water treatment and pollution
• ISSN: 0043-1354; 1879-2448
• DOI: 10.1016/S0043-1354(02)00153-7

Toxicity assays based on bioluminescent bacteria have several advantages including a quick response and an easily measured signal. The Shk1 assay is a procedure for wastewater toxicity testing based on the bioluminescent bacterium Shk1. Using the Shk1 assay, the toxicity of 98 organic chemicals were measured and EC 50 values were obtained. Quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) models based on the logarithm of the octanol–water partition coefficient (log( K ow)) were developed for individual groups of organic chemicals with different functional groups. The correlation coefficients for different groups of organic compounds varied between 0.69 and 0.99. An overall QSAR model without discriminating the functional groups, which can be used for a quick estimate of the toxicities of organic chemicals, was also developed and model predictions were compared to experimental data. The model accuracy was found to be one order of magnitude from the observed values.