title: New platform of biosensors for prescreening of pesticide residues to support laboratory analyses.
abstract: Millions of tons of pesticides are applied worldwide annually in agriculture. Among them, herbicides such as triazines and ureas, originating from agricultural runoff, can contaminate soils and surface and ground waters with severe toxic effects on humans. Nowadays, different analytical techniques are available for the detection of these chemicals; however, most of them are expensive and time-consuming, especially in the case of routine analyses. For this reason, on the basis of results collected through many years of experience in the field of photosynthetic organisms, we designed a biosensor platform intended for the easy, low-cost, and fast prescreening of photosynthetic herbicides. The platform combines the possibilities of amperometric and optical transduction systems, which have proven to be highly sensitive (limits of detection = 10(-10)-10(-8) M). The use of genetically modified algae strengthens the power of the platform, allowing different subclasses of herbicides to be recognized. The system has been validated for the analysis of environmental water and is proposed to support laboratories involved in the control of water pollution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Agro-food, Institute of Crystallography, 00015 Monterontodo Scalo, Rome, Italy. katia.buonasera@mlib.ic.cnr.it
authors.forename: Katia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Buonasera
authors.forename: Gianni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pezzotti
authors.forename: Viviana
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Scognamiglio
authors.forename: Arianna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tibuzzi
authors.forename: Maria Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Giardi
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D016825:Chlamydomonas reinhardtii / Q000235:genetics / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005470:Fluorometry; D006540:Herbicides / Q000032:analysis; D016296:Mutagenesis; D010573:Pesticide Residues / Q000032:analysis*; D045332:Photosystem II Protein Complex; D018724:Spinacia oleracea / Q000648:ultrastructure; D020524:Thylakoids
chemical_list: D006540:Herbicides; D010573:Pesticide Residues; D045332:Photosystem II Protein Complex