N. Ramaiah et D. Chandramohan, ECOLOGICAL AND LABORATORY STUDIES ON THE ROLE OF LUMINOUS BACTERIA AND THEIR LUMINESCENCE IN COASTAL POLLUTION SURVEILLANCE, Marine pollution bulletin, 26(4), 1993, pp. 190-201
This study was aimed at finding out how bacterial bioluminescence, a t
rait very sensitive to toxicants, is affected in coastal environs whic
h receive various types of effluents. For this, observations on occurr
ence and distribution of visibly luminous bacteria from both polluted
and nonpolluted environments were documented during a 7 vr period. Whi
le luminous colonies were abundant, often contributing over 10% of the
total colony-forming units in the pollutant free areas, none of over
200 water, sediment, fish, shellfish and plankton samples from the pol
luted localities yielded any visibly luminous colony. On analysing sev
eral bacterial strains originating from the latter environment, it was
evident that there were many dark (nonvisibly luminous) strains of th
e usually luminescent Photobacterium leiognathi. Laboratory studies on
the effect of various chemicals on light emission by different lumino
us species suggested a strong depression (and/or irreversible loss) of
luminescence in them. Results of this study suggest that in addition
to several advantages known with these bacteria, they are useful as bi
omarkers in the assessment of environmental health.