Toxicity and mutagenicity assessment of a boron mine drainage water

Abstract

This study was aimed to assess toxicity of boron mine drainage (BMD) water in Krka borough of Turkey, which is one of the most important boron deposit sites in the world. Three complementary tests were done to assess the toxicity of BMD water. Root growth inhibition tests showed that EC50 value of BMD water sample was approximately 3.85% of concentration. Furthermore, mutagenicity was analysed utilising Ames Salmonella Mutagenicity Test and Muta-ChromoPlate kit system (Environmental Biodetection Products Inc., Ontario, Canada). Salmonella typhimurium TA 98 strain for all concentrations and Salmonella typhimurium TA100 strain for the highest concentrations of BMD water in the absence of metabolic activation significantly stimulated mutagenic activity and increased the numbers of revertant colonies for several concentrations compared to spontaneous revertant colonies. RAPD-PCR result and the polymorphism percentage proved that the effect of boron contamination was seen on DNA level.