Honeybees and bioluminescent bacteria: Biosensors and bioindicators in environmental monitoring.

Bioindicators are very useful tools for the detection of toxic pollutants, serving as early warnings that a community or an ecosystem is being degraded. Several organisms can work as bioindicators and among them luminescent bacteria and honeybees [1-2]. In vivo luminescence is a sensitive indicator of xenobiotic toxicity: if noxious substances are present, the luminescence decreases proportionally to their concentration. A bioassay for monitoring of toxic compounds has been developed based on bioluminescent bacteria using 96 wells microplates. Bioluminescent bacteria were employed to detect the presence of heavy metals (mercury and lead), BTEX, antibiotics (in animal excreta samples), and pesticides at several concentrations. The toxicity of sludge from different oil tanks and petroleum contaminated soils was evaluated before and after bacterial bioremediation treatments. In Italy, bees have been used in the environmental monitoring of pesticides since the '80s. Later on the bee has been used for the monitoring of heavy metals pollution, for the detection of radionuclides [2], and more recently for the detection of the phytopathogen bacterium Erwinia amylovora. Our research group demonstrated for the first time that honeybees could be used for environmental detection of phytopathogenic microorganisms. For the monitoring through honeybees, pesticides (ex. carbamate, organophosphorous) and pollen were extracted from honeybee’s specimens and the samples collected were analysed by GC. Chemiluminescent immunoassays for carbamates, imidacloprid, and thiram were also developed and applied to honeybee’s extracts. At the present, numerous agreements are active with municipalities for environmental monitoring using bees and several applications and thesis work topics will arise from that as from national and international collaborations. Girotti, S., Ferri, E.N., Bolelli, L., Sermasi, G., Fini, F. Applications of bioluminescence in analytical chemistry. In: “Chemiluminescence in Analytical Chemistry”, A.M. Garcia-Campaña, W.R.G. Baeyens, Eds. New York, Marcel Dekker, 247-284, 2001. C.Porrini, S.Ghini, S.Girotti, A.G.Sabatini, E.Gattavecchia, G.Celli. “Use of honey bees as bioindicators of environmental pollution in Italy”. In: “Honey Bees: Estimating the Environmental Impact of Chemicals” J.Devillers and M.H.Pham-Delègue, Editors, Routledge-Taylors & Francis Group, London, pages 186-247, 2002