title: Biosensing of benzene derivatives in the environment by luminescent Escherichia coli.
abstract: Sensitive and convenient biosensing of environmental pollutants has been developed by fusing a gene of firefly luciferase to the TOL plasmid. TOL plasmid of Pseudomonas putida encodes a series of enzymes for degradation of benzene and its derivatives. The expression of these enzymes is controlled with the regulating proteins xylR and xylS, whose promoters are activated in the presence of aromatic compounds. The structural gene of firefly luciferase, as a reporter enzyme, was inserted under the control of the promoter of xylS protein, and gene fusion plasmid pTSN316 was constructed. The recombinant Escherichia coli transformed with this plasmid was applied to the environmental biosensing of benzene derivatives. The expression of luciferase was induced in the presence of aromatic compounds and the lower detection limit for m-xylene was 5 microM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Faculty of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kobatake
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Niimi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Haruyama
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ikariyama
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aizawa
mesh_terms: D001554:Benzene / Q000032:analysis*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008156:Luciferases / Q000235:genetics; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D014992:Xylenes / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D014992:Xylenes; D008156:Luciferases; D001554:Benzene; C031285:3-xylene