Development and applications of whole cell biosensors for ecotoxicity testing

Abstract

Whole cell biosensors are the focus of considerable and increasing interest worldwide as methods for detecting and quantifying environmental toxicity, including biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), heavy metals, antibiotics, pesticides and herbicides. This review follows the development of whole cell biosensors from attempts to utilise changes in cellular metabolism to determine BOD and general toxicity, through the exploitation of unique metabolic pathways to detect specific toxicants, to the increasingly widespread use of genetic engineering to build new, and modify existing, sensing pathways.

Alternating Current-Dielectrophoresis Collection and Chaining of Phytoplankton on Chip: Comparison of Individual Species and Artificial Communities

“…By using various electrode configurations, DEP manipulation could allow one: (i) to discriminate different phytoplankton species depending on their effective polarizability and to enable their manipulation, such as specific collection or separation in freshwater; and (ii) to immobilize the cells in 1D or 2D arrays. Indeed, most of the present tools for water quality assessment are based on biosensors developed with only one phytoplankton species [7], whereas phytoplankton communities are composed of a large number of different microorganisms [1]. Future DEP-based biosensors could make use of the opportunity to form a 2D array of mixed phytoplankton species from freshwater, while allowing fluorescence microscopic observations, as we previously demonstrated with C. reinhardtii [17].…”

“…Because of their capability to rapidly respond to environmental changes due to their small size and fast metabolic processes, phytoplankton are considered good indicators of water quality [3,4]. In recent years, phytoplankton cells were widely used as biological components in biosensors for water monitoring and demonstrated their sensitivity to a large range of aquatic pollutants, including herbicides, pesticides and toxic metals [5,6,7]. Phytoplankton from the aquatic environment combined with dielectrophoresis (DEP) could offer new means for the development of biosensors for water quality assessment.…”

Paper-based analytical devices for electrochemical study of the breathing process of red blood cells

“…Past years have witnessed numerous applications of cell-based biosensors in environmental monitoring [1][2][3], drug discovery [4], food safety [5] and biomedical assays [6][7][8][9]. Fluorescent [10], electrochemical [11], and colorimetric [12] approaches have been coupled for detection in cell-based biosensors.…”

A Potentiometric Flow Biosensor Based on Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria for the Detection of Toxicity in Water

“…Bioassays are one of the most useful technologies for environmental monitoring due to their high sensitivity, good reproducibility, and easy adaptation for online measurements [1–3]. Various toxicity bioassays based on measuring the physiological responses of fish, invertebrates, plants, algae and microorganisms have been developed [4–6].…”