Innovative biological approaches for monitoring and improving water quality

Abstract

Water quality is largely influenced by the abundance and diversity of indigenous microbes present within an aquatic environment. Physical, chemical and biological contaminants from anthropogenic activities can accumulate in aquatic systems causing detrimental ecological consequences. Approaches exploiting microbial processes are now being utilized for the detection, and removal or reduction of contaminants. Contaminants can be identified and quantified in situ using microbial whole-cell biosensors, negating the need for water samples to be tested off-site. Similarly, the innate biodegradative processes can be enhanced through manipulation of the composition and/or function of the indigenous microbial communities present within the contaminated environments. Biological contaminants, such as detrimental/pathogenic bacteria, can be specifically targeted and reduced in number using bacteriophages. This mini-review discusses the potential application of whole-cell microbial biosensors for the detection of contaminants, the exploitation of microbial biodegradative processes for environmental restoration and the manipulation of microbial communities using phages.

Harnessing the hygroscopic and biofluorescent behaviors of genetically tractable microbial cells to design biohybrid wearables

“…1 , G and H). If this hypothesis were true, we could easily embed other functionalities into the existing moisture-responsive cells through modern genetic engineering technologies, such as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)–Cas9 ( 16 ), for instance, to facilely introduce fluorophores ( 17 ), colors ( 18 ), odors ( 19 ), or other metabolic responsiveness induced by environmental change ( 20 ). This will open up a new application space for using hygroscopic transforming materials to tackle real-world problems related to moisture (for example, indoor humidity control and warts caused by hyperhidrosis).…”

Analysis of viral and bacterial communities in groundwater associated with contaminated land

“…Bioremediation strategies are based on the exploitation of the extensive metabolic versatility of microbes, particularly bacteria, to clean-up environmental contaminants that function as nutrient or energy sources for bacterial cells (Aracic et al, 2015). Different strategies of bioremediation exist.…”

The potential of synthetic biology for improving environmental quality and human health in developing countries

“…Several synthetic biosensors have designed to monitor the quality of water in an expensive, faster and the environmental-friendly way 52 . In general synthetic biosensors are composed by a reporter gene (fluorescent, luminescent or electrochemical), which is placed under the control of a promoter that is activated in the presence of a specific water contaminant 53 .…”