Comparison of the use of mussels and semipermeable membrane devices for monitoring and assessment of accumulation of mutagenic pollutants in marine environment in combination with a novel microbiological mutagenicity assay Ewa Chęć & Beata Podgórska & Grzegorz Węgrzyn Received: 21 January 2007 / Accepted: 24 May 2007 / Published online: 12 June 2007 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2007 Abstract A novel microbiological mutagenicity assay, based on bioluminescence of a marine bacterium Vibrio harveyi mutant strain, potentially suitable for monitor- ing and assessment of mutagenic pollution of marine environment, has been described recently. Here, we tested the use of this assay, in combination with either mussels (Mytilus sp.) or semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs), in assessment of accumulation of mutagens in marine water (samples of Baltic Sea water were tested). Either similar results were obtained in both systems or higher signals in the SPMD-based system were detected, depending on the tested water samples. We conclude that the use of both mussels and SPMDs in combination with the V. harveyi biolumi- nescence mutagenicity assay is a method suitable for monitoring and assessment of accumulation of muta- genic pollutants in marine environment, but in some cases the SPMD-based system may provide a more sensitive test. Keywords Accumulation of mutagenic compounds . Bioluminescence . Marine environment . Mussels . Mutagenic pollution . Mutagenicity assay . Semipermeable membrane devices . Vibrio harveyi Introduction The presence of mutagenic pollutants in natural environment is predominantly a side effect of industrial processes (Goldman and Shields 2003; Vargas 2003; Ohe et al. 2004). These compounds occur usually at low concentrations, but they can accumulate in organisms and became a cause of either serious diseases or genetic defects in future generations (El- Bayoumy 1992; Shelby et al. 1993; Depledge 1998; Au et al. 2001; Martin 2001; Tornqvist and Ehrenberg 2001; Barton et al. 2005). Therefore, monitoring and assessment of mutagenic pollution of environment, including accumulation of mutagenic compounds in organisms, is an important issue. Despite the importance of monitoring of accumu- lation of mutagens in environment, detection of compounds which occur in various habitats and are capable of inducing mutations in the genetic material is difficult. This difficulty results from the fact that there are thousands of known chemicals that induce mutagenic effects at very low concentrations. Thus, direct chemical analyses that could lead to detection of particular mutagens in environmental samples are Environ Monit Assess (2008) 140:83–90 DOI 10.1007/s10661-007-9849-1 E. Chęć : B. Podgórska : G. Węgrzyn Department of Genetics and Marine Biotechnology, Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712 Sopot, Poland G. Węgrzyn (*) Department of Molecular Biology, University of Gdańsk, Kładki 24, 80-822 Gdańsk, Poland e-mail: wegrzyn@biotech.univ.gda.pl