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Online and in situ monitoring of environmental pollutants: electrochemical biosensing of cadmium
Author(s) -
Biran Israel,
Babai Reuven,
Levcov Klimentiy,
Rishpon Judith,
Ron Eliora Z.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.954
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1462-2920
pISSN - 1462-2912
DOI - 10.1046/j.1462-2920.2000.00103.x
Subject(s) - biosensor , pollutant , in situ , cadmium , biology , escherichia coli , environmental chemistry , gene expression , gene , computational biology , biochemistry , ecology , materials science , chemistry , organic chemistry , metallurgy
Online sensitive monitoring of gene expression is essential for understanding microbial life and microbial communities, especially under stress‐inducing conditions, such as the presence of environmental pollutants. We describe here a novel use of promoter‐based electrochemical biosensing for online and in situ monitoring of gene expression in response to pollutants. As a model system, we used a cadmium‐responsive promoter from Escherichia coli fused to a promoterless lacZ gene, which was monitored using an electrochemical assay of β‐galactosidase activity. This whole‐cell biosensor could detect, within minutes, nanomolar concentrations of cadmium in water, sea water and soil samples, and it can be used for continuous online and in situ monitoring.