Analysis of river water by bioluminescent biotests

The bacterial bioluminescence has high sensitivity to the action of various inhibitors of biological activity. The lyophilized luminous bacteria Photobacterium phosphoreum (Microbiosensor B17 677F) and luminous strain Escherichia coli (Microbiosensor EC) from the Culture Collection IBSO were used to create bioluminescent biotests. They have been applied in ecological monitoring to determine the overall toxicity of the Yenisei and Angara Rivers and some water sources of Altai Territory. As a rule the heaviest pollution of water in studied rivers was registered near cities and settlements. The luminous bacteria biotests are simple and convenient in work, standardized and quantitative, have rapid response to actions of different substances and high sensitivity to environmental pollutants. It takes less than 30 min to do the biotest (the other biotests take 48--96 h).