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Dormant Organisms: New Toxkits Test Environmental Toxicity
Scientists have developed a ‘magic box’ containing dormant organisms that can be woken up anytime and anywhere to test the toxicity of contaminated waters and soils. This new technology, called Toxkits, will be described by Professor Guido Persoone (Gent University, Belgium) and Dr. Kirit Wadhia (ALcontrol laboratories) on Monday 29th March at the annual SEB meeting in Edinburgh (29th March – 2nd April 2004, sessions A13.12 and A13.13).
“Toxkits are revolutionary tools which provide a cheaper, faster and easier alternative to conventional tests for toxicity testing”, says Dr. Wadhia. “It is very time consuming and costly to maintain laboratory populations of live test organisms year-round. Toxkits contain these organisms as dormant or immobilized stages, which can be brought back to life when they are needed. They enable biological toxicity testing at a small fraction of the cost of conventional tests, requiring very little bench space, equipment or expertise.”
Toxkit microbiotests are miniaturized bioassays developed by Professor Persoone and collaborators, which contain all the reagents, test plates and organisms that you need to perform a biological toxicity test. Toxkits are available in a wide range of test organisms, including microalgae, protozoans, rotifers and crustaceans, enabling acute and chronic bioassays of terrestrial, freshwater, marine and estuarine habitats.
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