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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 946

Lansing M. Prescott, Mary K. Kubovec, and David Tryggestad; The effects of pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls and metals on the growth and reproduction of Acanthamoeba castellanii. Bull.Environ.Contam.Toxicol. 18(1):29-34, 1977

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Despite the large number of investigations on the effects of environmental toxicants on organisms, relatively little effort has been devoted to studies of protozoan responses to potentially toxic pollutants. We have selected the free-living amoeba, Acanthamoeba castellanii for a study of pollutant effects on protozoa. Acanthamoeba is widespread in soil and fresh water, it can be axenically cultured in semidefined or defined media, and enough is known of its metabolism to provide a basis for the future study of the mechanism of any toxic effects which might be observed. The effects of a few pesticides on the growth of Acanthamoeba cultures have been described in a prior publication (Prescott and Olson, 1972). This work was undertaken in order to expand our knowledge of the sensitivity of this protozoan to potentially toxic materials which are commonly found in the environment.