Magnet bioreporter device for ecological toxicity assessment on heavy metal contamination of coal cinder sites

Abstract A novel magnet bioreporter device was developed in this research for soil toxicity assessment, via magnetic nanoparticles functionalized whole-cell bioreporters. The whole-cell bioreporter ADPWH_recA kept response capability to DNA damage after magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) functionalization, and could be harvested from soil samples by permanent magnet to reduce the soil particle disturbance. Compared to conventional treatments applying bioreporter directly in soil–water mixture (SW-M treatment) or supernatant (SW-S treatment), MNPs functionalized bioreporter via the magnet device (MFB) treatment achieved high sensitivity to evaluate the toxicity and bioavailability of chromium contamination in soils from 10 mg/kg to 5000 mg/kg soil dry weight. The MNPs functionalized bioreporter also achieved high reproducibility with pH value from 5.0 to 9.0, salinity from 0% to 3% and temperature from 20 °C to 37 °C. A case study was carried out on the ecological toxicity assessment of heavy metal contamination at the coal cinder site via the magnet bioreporter device. The heavy metal toxicity declined with the increasing distance to the coal cinder point, and a significant accumulation of heavy metal toxicity was observed along the vertical distribution. No direct link was found between the pollution load index ( PLI ) and heavy metal toxicity, and the results suggested the bioreporter test monitored the toxicity of heavy metals in soils and was an important approach for ecological risk assessment. Magnet bioreporter device also offered the high throughput biological measurement and was feasible for in situ monitoring.