Toxicity assessment using different bioassays and microbial biosensors

Toxicity assessment of water streams, wastewater, and-contaminated sediments, is a very important part of environmental pollution monitoring. Evaluation of biological effects using a rapid, sensitive and cost effective method can indicate specific information on ecotoxicity assessment. Recently, different biological assays for toxicity assessment based on higher and lower organisms such as fish, invertebrates, plants and algal cells, and microbial bioassays have been used. This review focuses on microbial biosensors as an analytical device for environmental, food, and biomedical applications. Different techniques which are commonly used in microbial biosensing include amperometty, potentiometry, conductometry, voltammetry, microbial fuel cells, fluorescence, bioluminescence, and,colorimetry. Examples of the use of different microbial biosensors in assessing a variety of environments are summarized. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.