| Use of Ecotoxicological Tools to Evaluate the Health of New Bedford Harbor Sediments: a Microbial Biomarker Approach Timothy Ford,1 Jenny Jay,2 Anand Patel,2 Molly
Kile,3 Phanida Prommasith,3 Tamara Galloway,4 Ross
Sanger,4 Karen Smith,4 and Mike Depledge4 1Department of Microbiology, Montana State University, Bozeman,
Montana, USA; 2Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA; 3School
of Public Health, Harvard University,
Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 4Plymouth Environmental Research Center,
University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom Abstract
We have been investigating microbial communities in sediments from New Bedford Harbor (NBH) , Massachusetts, USA, for a number of years. NBH is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-designated Superfund site heavily contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heavy metals. Microorganisms are thought to contribute to the fate and distribution of contaminants in NBH through a variety of mechanisms, including direct transformations and formation of soluble and insoluble species. Our more recent research has focused on changes in microbial community structure and function in response to exposure to toxic contaminants, with the ultimate goal of using microbes as ecotoxicological tools. Microbial diversity, as measured by restriction fragment-length polymorphism analysis, changes along pollution gradients, with an apparent increase in diversity at the most contaminated sites, concomitant with an increase in genetic relatedness. Current work on microbial communities examines the presence of arsenic-resistance genes in NBH isolates. In collaboration with the Plymouth Environmental Research Center, Plymouth University, United Kingdom, we have also used more conventional ecotoxicological approaches to examine the health of the NBH biota. Key words: metal-resistance genes, microbial diversity, RAMP, RFLP. Environ Health Perspect 113:186-191 (2005) . doi:10.1289/ehp.6934 available via http://dx.doi.org/ doi:10.1289/ehp.6934 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 8 December 2004]
This article is based on a presentation at the conference “Bioremediation and Biodegradation: Current Advances in Reducing Toxicity, Exposure and Environmental Consequences” ( http://www-apps.niehs.nih.gov/sbrp/bioremediation.html) held 9-12 June 2002 in Pacific Grove, California, and sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Superfund Basic Research Program. The overall focus of this conference was on exploring the research interfaces of toxicity reduction, exposure assessment, and evaluation of environmental consequences in the context of using state-of-the art approaches to bioremediation and biodegradation. The Superfund Basic Research Program has a legacy of supporting research conferences designed to integrate the broad spectrum of disciplines related to hazardous substances. Address correspondence to T. Ford, 109 Lewis Hall, Department of Microbiology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717 USA. Telephone: (406) 994-2901. Fax: (406) 994-4926. E-mail: tford@montana.edu This publication was made possible by grant 5 P42 ES05947 from the NIEHS, National Institutes of Health (NIH) . Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIEHS, NIH. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 23 December 2003 ; accepted 26 May 2004. The full version of this article is available for free in HTML or PDF formats. |
