Monitoring and classification of toxicity using recombinant bioluminescent bacteria.

Recombinant bioluminescent biosensing cells were used to detect and classify toxicity caused by various chemicals in water environments. Classification of the toxicity was realized based upon the chemicals' actions of toxicity by using DNA-, oxidative- and membrane-damage sensitive strains. Tested samples contained a single chemical or mixture of chemicals in media, wastewater, or river water. Finally, it is suggested that this method for classification of toxic chemicals in wastewater or other aqueous systems may be adopted for primary screening steps of the samples and can give useful information about the samples' characteristics.