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Updated: Apr 28, 2026
Chemotactic Response of Marine Micro-Organisms to Micro-Scale Nutrient Layers
Published on: May 28, 2007
Marine phytoplankton motility sensor integrated into a microfluidic chip for high-throughput pollutant toxicity
Guo-xia Zheng1, Ya-jie Li2, Lin-lin Qi3
1Chemical and Environmental Engineering Institute, Dalian University, Dalian, China; Microfluidic Research Institute, Dalian University, Dalian, China.
Abstract:
A microfluidic chip was designed to assess the toxicity of pollutants in a high-throughput way by using marine phytoplankton motility as a sensor signal. In this chip, multiple gradient generators (CGGs) with diffusible chambers enable large scale of dose-response bioassays to be performed in a simple way. Two mobile marine phytoplankton cells were confined on-chip and stimulated by 8 concentrations (generated by CGG) of Hg, Pb, Cu and phenol singly, as well as Cu and phenol jointly. CASA system was used to characterize motility by motile percentage (%MOT), curvilinear velocity (VCL), average path velocity (VAP) and straight line velocity (VSL). In all cases, dose-dependent inhibitions of motility were observed. In the present system, only 2h was needed to predict EC50. Thus, the developed microfluidic chip device was proved to be useful as a rapid/simple and high-throughput test method in marine pollution toxicity assessment.
