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Heavy metal effects on luminescence of bacteria and isolated brittlestar photocytes Dimitri D. Deheyn*; MI Latz Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0202, USA      *(ddeheyn@ucsd.edu) Toxicity of heavy metals is commonly assessed by using Microtox-like toxicity tests of bacterial bioluminescence as a character sensitive to environmental quality. A metal is considered toxic if it induces <50% decrease of bioluminescence after 15-30 min exposure. In order to determine whether the bacterial assay is relevant to toxic effects on higher organisms, we are investigating the use of brittlestars as bioindicators of heavy metal contamination. Because the luminescence of brittlestars is produced by specialized cells under nervous control, it is possible to relate bioaccumulation of heavy metals with cellular and neurological assays of toxicity to provide a more integrated and realistic estimation of toxicity for metazoans than is possible using bacteria. The first step was to compare the results of a Microtox-like assay, using a wild type of the bacterium Photobacterium phosphoreum, with an assay using isolated brittlestar photocytes. In each case bioluminescence was measured from cells that were exposed from 0.5—12 hr to 10 heavy metals at various concentrations (from 1—10-5 microgram l-1). Future work will consider the neurological effect of heavy metals on the bioluminescence of entire brittlestars. [Poster: deheyn.dimitr.64292]

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