Carbonic anhydrase based environmental bioassay

Carbonic anhydrase (CA) is a metalloenzyme catalysing the reversible idratation of CO2 in H+ and . It is an ubiquitous enzyme in bacteria, plant and animal kingdoms, playing a fundamental role in a number of physiological processes. Previous studies demonstrated the sensitivity of CA activity to dichlorodiphenyl-dichloroethane (DDT) exposure in birds and to cadmium exposure in teleosts. The aim of the present work was to develop a new in vitro enzymatic bioassay for detecting toxic chemicals in environmental samples as a cost-effective tool in environmental monitoring. This bioassay uses the commercial available CA isozyme II from bovine erythrocytes whose sensitivity to the main classes of chemical pollutants of importance in water quality research was tested in this work. CA activity was determined by a modification of the electrometric method previously described by Wilbur and Anderson [K.M. Wilbur, G.N. Anderson. J. Biol. Chem., 176, 147 (1948).]: briefly, CA activity units were calculated from the ra...