| Summary: | One of the most common types of pollution that has a negative impact on the biotic community
in aquatic habitats is heavy metal poisoning of the water. Both essential and non-essential heavy
metals can be toxic to living things if their concentrations are too high for their bioavailability.
Although the toxicity of heavy metals, and especially anionic metal ions, is better known than
that of cationic metal ions, it is just as toxic, if not more so. The focus of this review is on the
usefulness of eukaryotic organisms like yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, for toxicity assessment
because they can be easily maintained and developed in controlled circumstances, thereby
avoiding variability issues that arise when employing more complex organisms. Recent research
has shown that the majority of cellular MTT reduction occurs outside of the mitochondrial inner
membrane, and that this reduction is dependent on NADH and NADPH but is resistant to
respiratory chain inhibitors.
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