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An amperometric flow system combined with a glucose oxidase-mutarotase reactor was optimized and used to determine aromatic amines and phenols using peroxidase-modified graphite electrodes. An increase in currents upon injection of the analyzed substrate was shown to be approximated by a Michaelis-Menten type dependence. The detection limit was calculated as 3 times the noise, and the sensitivity was calculated as Imax/K(m)app. Commercially available horseradish peroxidase was compared with tobacco anionic and peanut cationic peroxidases for determination of aromatic amines and phenols. Detection limits of 10 nM for determination of o-aminophenol and o- and p-phenylenediamine achieved with a tobacco peroxidase-modified electrode give a promise for further improvements in sensitivities and detection limits of biosensors.

The intensive use of toxic and remanent pesticides in agriculture has prompted research into novel performant, yet cost-effective and fast analytical tools to control the pesticide residue levels in the environment and food. In this context, biosensors based on enzyme inhibition have been proposed as adequate analytical devices with the added advantage of using the toxicity of pesticides for detection purposes, being more “biologically relevant” than standard chromatographic methods. This review proposes an overview of recent advances in the development of biosensors exploiting the inhibition of cholinesterases, photosynthetic system II, alkaline phosphatase, cytochrome P450A1, peroxidase, tyrosinase, laccase, urease, and aldehyde dehydrogenase. While various strategies have been employed to detect pesticides from different classes (organophosphates, carbamates, dithiocarbamates, triazines, phenylureas, diazines, or phenols), the number of practical applications and the variety of environmental and food samples tested remains limited. Recent advances focus on enhancing the sensitivity and selectivity by using nanomaterials in the sensor assembly and novel mutant enzymes in array-type sensor formats in combination with chemometric methods for data analysis. The progress in the development of solar cells enriched the possibilities for efficient wiring of photosynthetic enzymes on different surfaces, opening new avenues for development of biosensors for photosynthesis-inhibiting herbicides.

This review provides a brief overview of the fabrication and properties of screen-printed electrodes and details the different opportunities to apply them for the detection of antibiotics, detection of bacteria and antibiotic susceptibility. Among the alternative approaches to costly chromatographic or ELISA methods for antibiotics detection and to lengthy culture methods for bacteria detection, electrochemical biosensors based on screen-printed electrodes present some distinctive advantages. Chemical and (bio)sensors for the detection of antibiotics and assays coupling detection with screen-printed electrodes with immunomagnetic separation are described. With regards to detection of bacteria, the emphasis is placed on applications targeting viable bacterial cells. While the electrochemical sensors and biosensors face many challenges before replacing standard analysis methods, the potential of screen-printed electrodes is increasingly exploited and more applications are anticipated to advance towards commercial analytical tools.

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The electrocatalytic properties for NADH oxidation of five organic dyes, two indophenol derivatives (2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol and indophenol) and three o-quinone derivatives (phenanthrenequinone, pyrroloquinoline-quinone, and 1,2-naphthoquinone) were compared when adsorbed on zirconium phosphate entrapped in carbon paste. The electrochemical behavior of the immobilized dyes was investigated with cyclic voltammetry, performed in different aqueous MARCEL DEKKER, INC. • 270 MADISON AVENUE • NEW YORK, NY 10016buffers, at different potential scan rates and pH values. The electrocatalytic efficiency for NADH oxidation was evaluated from cyclic voltammetry, and the second order electrocatalytic rate constant was calculated from rotating disk electrode experiments, at various concentrations of NADH and pH values. These studies indicate that the mechanism of such electro-oxidation proceeds via the formation of an intermediate complex. A positive effect with the addition of Ca 2þ cations to the solution was observed and the reaction rate for NADH oxidation increased. The highest second order rate constant was obtained for 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol and found to be 4.6 Â 10 6 M À1 s À1 .

Laccases are useful biocatalysts for many diverse biotechnological applications. In this study we have established efficient and reliable expression systems and high-throughput screenings for the recombinant CotA-laccase from Bacillus subtilis. The expression levels of cotA-laccase were compared in five different Escherichia coli host strains growing in 96-well microtiter plates under different culture conditions. Lower coefficients of variance (around 15%) were achieved using crude cell lysates of BL21 and KRX host strains growing under microaerobic conditions. Reproducible high-throughput screenings for the decolorization of high redox potential azo and anthraquinonic dyes were developed and optimized for identification of variants with increased redox potential. The enzymatic assays developed were tested for the screening of one mutant library from CotA-laccase created by error-prone PCR.

The ability of Trametes villosa laccase to degrade an azo dye (methyl orange) and to catalyze the coupling reactions between the aromatic amines and catechol was studied. It was found that the apparent Michaelis-Menten constants obtained from amperometric measurements were comparable to the ones obtained in the oxygen consumption experiments (8.20 and 7.40 M, respectively). From the measurements of the mediated and mediatorless currents of azo dye degradation and coupling reactions it was concluded that the addition of 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (HBT) as mediator considerably improves the catalytic efficiencies.It can be concluded that the mediated coupling of the aromatic amine with catechol opens the perspectives of physical removal of these polluting chemicals from the nature and the usage of the laccase immobilized onto macro-electrodes in online systems with continuous monitoring of the enzyme activity.