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Using Pgst-4::GFP-transformed Caenorhabditis elegans for drinking water quality monitoring

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Abstract

Biological effect-based monitoring is essential for predicting or alerting to a possible deterioration in drinking water quality. In the present study, a reporter gene assay based on oxidative stress–mediated Pgst-4::GFP induction in the Caenorhabditis elegans strain VP596 (VP596 assay) was assessed for its applicability in evaluating drinking water safety and quality. This assay was used to measure the oxidative stress response in VP596 worms exposed to six ubiquitous components (As3+, Al3+, F−, NO3−-N, CHCl3, and residual chlorine) in drinking water, eight mixtures of these six components designed through orthogonal design, ninety-six unconcentrated water samples from source to tap water in two supply systems, and organic extracts (OEs) of twenty-five selected water samples. Pgst-4::GFP fluorescence was not induced by Al3+, F−, NO3−-N, and CHCl3, and was significantly enhanced by As3+ and residual chlorine only at concentrations higher than their respective drinking water guideline levels. Pgst-4::GFP induction was not detected in any of the six-component mixtures. Induction of Pgst-4::GFP was observed in 9.4% (3/32) of the source water samples but not in the drinking water samples. However, a notable induction effect was revealed in the three OEs of drinking water, with a relative enrichment factor of 200. These results suggest that the VP596 assay has limited utility for screening drinking water safety by testing unconcentrated water samples; however, it offers a supplemental in vivo tool for prioritizing water samples for an enhanced quality assessment, monitoring pollutant removal performance by drinking water treatment plants, and evaluating water quality in water supplies.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Center of Water Quality Monitoring, Wuhan Water Group Company Limited, for its support of this study. We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.cn) for English language editing.

Funding

This work was partly supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in China (No. 2015TS103) and Cooperative Agreement number 20212303 from the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The funding sources had no role in study design, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript writing, and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, and State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Yan Wang, Xue Han & Ai-Lin Liu

  2. Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, 450046, China

    Xue Han

  3. Center of Water Quality Monitoring, Wuhan Water Group Company Limited, Wuhan, 430034, China

    Jie Zhang & Meng-Xuan Zhou

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Yan Wang: investigation, writing—original draft; Xue Han: investigation, methodology; Jie Zhang: investigation, resources; Meng-Xuan Zhou: investigation; Ai-Lin Liu: project administration, writing—review and editing.

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Wang, Y., Han, X., Zhang, J. et al. Using Pgst-4::GFP-transformed Caenorhabditis elegans for drinking water quality monitoring. Environ Monit Assess 195, 675 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11349-9

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