Marine phytoplankton motility sensor integrated into a microfluidic chip for high-throughput pollutant toxicity assessment

• Published in: Marine pollution bulletin Vol. 84; no. 1-2; pp. 147 - 154
• Main Authors: Zheng, Guo-xia, Li, Ya-jie, Qi, Lin-lin, Liu, Xian-ming, Wang, Hu, Yu, Shu-ping, Wang, Yun-hua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 15.07.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Assessments; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Assay - instrumentation; Biological Assay - methods; Chips; Copper; Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; High-throughput; Marine; Marine and brackish environment; Marine phytoplankton; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques - instrumentation; Microfluidic chip; Microfluidics; Motility; Movement; Oceans and Seas; Phenol; Phytoplankton; Phytoplankton - physiology; Sea water ecosystems; Synecology; Toxicity; Toxicity assessment; Water Pollutants, Chemical - toxicity; High-throughput; Microfluidic chip; Motility; Marine phytoplankton; Toxicity assessment; Marine environment; Pollutant; Toxicity; Phytoplankton
• ISSN: 0025-326X; 1879-3363
• DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.05.019

[Display omitted] •We develop a microfluidic chip toward high-throughput toxicity test.•We set phytoplankton motility as bioassay sensor signal integrated in chip.•Using the chip, single and combine toxicity tests are successfully performed. 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.