Commissioned: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Regione Veneto
Period: 2007
Country: Italia
The objective of the project is to coordinate and propose new diagnostic instruments to evaluate the quality of marine coastal ecosystems, specifically focusing on the application of advanced and innovative biotechnology for monitoring purposes, and risk assessment relating to trace element contamination.
The project, which has involved Thetis (group leader), University of Padua (Department of Biology) and CRIBI, is expected to proceed in two separate phases:
- Phase A – Development and application of chemical and ecotoxicological methods to evaluate distribution, bioavailability and toxicity of trace metals in lagoon and coastal environments; this has permitted the refinement of a procedure (Toxicity Identification Evaluation) to identify the classes of contaminants that produce toxic effects in indicator organisms (Mytilus galloprovincialis, Crassostrea gigas and Paracentrotus lividus);
- Phase B – Transfer and development of advanced, innovative molecular biological and genomic technology in Mytilus galloprovincialis for the purpose of monitoring the coastal environment; this enabled biomolecular techniques (Polymerase Chain Reaction and Quantitative Real Time PCR) to be refined to systematically recognize contaminated or infected mussels, thereby providing an improved control method for the food market.
