Photobacterium phosphoreum Toxicity Data Index

Abstract

This toxicity data index gives a compilation of some 1350 acute toxicity data of individual organic compounds for the luminescent marine bacterium Photobacterium phosphoreum, commonly known as Microtox™ test. The index contains 5-min, 15-min and 30-min toxicity data in both logarithmic (log (L/mmol) and non-logarithmic (mg/L) formats for approximately 1300 chemicals sorted by Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) accession numbers. In addition to the toxicity data, this index reviews correlations of the luminescent bacteria toxicity test data with a multitude of other acute toxicity tests on aquatic and terrestrial species, with emphasis on the 96-hr acute lethality data of 200 individual chemicals to the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas). A high collinearity between these two tests is demonstrated over nearly ten orders of magnitude in toxicity variation as expressed on a molar basis for compounds acting with several known toxicity mechanisms. These results indicate the usefulness of the luminescent bacteria bioassay as a simple, fast and comparatively inexpensive alternative to in-vivo bioassays with higher organisms.