Towards a better understanding of contaminant bioavailability- urgent replacement of photosynthetic incubators

这是一项迫切的应用，以取代将主要用于将污染物的化学形态与其生物有效性联系起来的孵化器系统。它由三个独立的堆叠式光合作用孵化器组成，具有温度(环境温度为-20至60摄氏度)、照明和混合控制。孵化器用于生产微生物培养物(细菌和藻类)和培育植物幼苗，这些植物幼苗随后在不同的物理化学条件下暴露于各种微污染物中。通常根据一些(转录)生物标记物来分析微生物的生物吸收和生物效应。例如，培养箱最近被用于研究稀土金属的生物吸收；确定Ce纳米颗粒的转录生物标记物；确定纳米银颗粒的命运；或开发多重表面增强拉曼光谱适体传感器来检测地表水中的微囊藻毒素。由于我们实验室的大部分工作都是研究污染物与微生物之间的相互作用，因此培养箱对于培养物的可重复性生产至关重要，培养物用于系统地评估化学生物利用度。我们目前使用的孵化器是我在日内瓦大学工作时购买的(2002年购买)，并于2005年运往蒙特利尔大学。它们已经修复了无数次，但目前只有一个孵化器(三个孵化器中的一个)正在运行。鉴于我们研究的性质，孵化器是我的不同研究小组和合作研究项目中大多数HQP培训的关键组成部分。他们将为多学科环境科学的现代培训环境做出贡献，为学生未来有意义的就业奠定基础。

This is an urgent application to replace an incubator system that will be used mainly to relate the chemical speciation of contaminants to their biological availability. It consists of three autonomous, stacked photosynthetic incubators with temperature (ambient-20 to 60 oC), lighting and mixing controls. The incubators are used to produce microbial cultures (both bacterial and algal) and grow plant seedlings that are subsequently exposed to a variety of microcontaminants under varying physico-chemical conditions. The microorganisms are typically analyzed for their biouptake and for biological effects based upon a number of (transcriptomic) biomarkers. For example, the incubators have recently been used to study the biouptake of rare earth metals; to identify transcriptomic biomarkers for Ce nanoparticles; to determine the fate of Ag nanoparticles or to develop multiplexed surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) aptasensors to detect microcystins in surface waters. Since most of the work in our lab examines interactions between contaminants and microorganisms, the incubators are critical for the reproducible production of cultures, which are used to systematically evaluate chemical bioavailability. The incubators that we are currently using were acquired while I was working at the University of Geneva (purchased in 2002) and transported to the University of Montreal in 2005. They have been repaired numerous times, however, only a single incubator (of the three) is currently functional. Given the nature of our research, the incubators are a critical component of the training of most of the HQP in my diverse research group and within collaborative research projects. They will contribute to a modern training environment in multidisciplinary environmental sciences that will position the students for future meaningful employment.