A Comparison of the Ames Assay and Mutatox in Assessing the Mutagenic Potential of Contaminated Dredged Material.
Abstract
The Ames assay and Mutatox were evaluated to compare their ability to identify the genotoxic potential of dredged sediments. The Ames assay has been used extensively in the testing of environmental contaminants. Mutatox, a bacterial bioluminescence test, was developed as a genotoxicity bioassay. Ten sediments with varying degrees of contamination were soxhlet extracted. These extracts were divided into crude and clean samples. Cleaned samples were prepared using silica-gel chromatography resulting in 20 extract samples. Both the Ames test (TA98 and TAl00) and Mutatox were conducted with and without S9 metabolic activation. TA98+S9 and TA1OO+S9 indicated a positive mutagenic response in 80 and 50 percent, respectively, of the sediment extracts. Half of the extracts indicated a positive mutagenic response with TA98-S9, while only 10 percent did so with TAlOO-S9. Mutatox indicated a positive mutagenic response with S9 activation in 75 percent of the extracts and no mutagenic response in any of the sediment extracts without metabolic activation. In a side-by-side comparison of the Ames assay (TA98+S9) and Mutatox, 80 percent of the sediment extracts had similar responses, both positive and negative. Fifty percent of the sediment extracts had similar responses when tested with TAlOO+S9 and Mutatox. Mutatox compared favorably with the Ames assay and shows promise as a screening tool to assess sediment genotoxicity when used with Ames assay as a confirmation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA294644
Entities
People
- A. S. Jarvis