Screening of potentially hormonally active chemicals using bioluminescent yeast bioreporters

Saccharomyces cerevisiae bioluminescent bioreporter assays were developed previously to assess a chemical's estrogenic or androgenic disrupting potential. S. cerevisiae BLYES, S. cerevisiae BLYAS, S. cerevisiae BLYR, were used to assess their reproducibility and utility in screening 68, 69, and 71 chemicals for estrogenic, androgenic, and toxic effects, respectively. EC(50) values were 6.3 +/- 2.4 x 10(-10)M (n = 18) and 1.1 +/- 0.5 x 10(-8)M (n = 13) for BLYES and BLYAS, using 17beta-estradiol and 5alpha-dihydrotestosterone over concentration ranges of 2.5 x 10(-12) through 1.0 x 10(-6)M, respectively. Based on analysis of replicate standard curves and comparison to background controls, a set of quantitative rules have been formulated to interpret data and determine if a chemical is potentially hormonally active, toxic, both, or neither. The results demonstrated that these assays are applicable for Tier I chemical screening in Environmental Protection Agency's Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Program as well as for monitoring endocrine-disrupting activity of unknown chemicals in water.