A case study comparing lead-response in different bioreporters: What constitutes a good biosensor?

Abstract

Whole-cell bioreporters hold great potential for detecting the environmental bioavailability of pollutants, and accordingly many bioreporters with different properties have been constructed for a large number of analytes of environmental interest. Uptake lags potential with respect to this interesting biotechnology, and in part one barrier to increased uptake is that the use of bioreporters remains foreign to the large majority of environmental practitioners and research investigators who have not and are not using them. Here we report a case study describing our approach to finding a suitable bioreporter and adjusting assay conditions for our particular application studying the environmental bioavailability of lead (Pb). We describe the process from start to finish, including the rationale behind selecting strains for testing, different issues with assay development that need to be considered (growth phase at harvest, pH, buffer, media interference with analyte or effect on biosensor), and evaluation of performance figures of merit. Subsequent to the testing and evaluation that we describe, we were able to identify one strain that was suitable for our intended use. We hope that results from this case study will assist other investigators in developing bioreporter assays, i.e., finding a “good biosensor”, for their own applications.

Keywords

• Environmental biotechnology
• High throughput
• Assay conditions
• Environmental risk assessment
• Case study