title: Construction of WCB-11: a novel phiYFP arsenic-resistant whole-cell biosensor.
abstract: The prediction and assessment of environmental pollution by arsenic are important preconditions of advocating environmental protection and human health risk assessment. A yellow fluorescent protein-based whole-cell biosensor for the detection of arsenite and arsenate was constructed and tested. An arsenic-resistant promoter and the regulatory gene arsR were obtained by PCR from the genome of Escherichia coli DH5alpha, and phiYFP was introduced into E. coli DH5alpha as a reporter gene to construct an arsenic-resistant whole-cell biosensor (WCB-11) in which phiYFP was expressed well for the first time. Experimental results demonstrated that the biosensor has a good response to arsenic and the expression of phiYFP. When strain WCB-11 was exposed to As3+ and As5+, the expression of yellow fluorescence was time-dependent and dose-dependent. This engineered construct is expected to become established as an inexpensive and convenient method for the detection of arsenic in the field.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Bio-Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China. huqing@rcees.ac.cn
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yanjuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wenjuan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Hongyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Guoqiang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhuang
mesh_terms: D001151:Arsenic / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D001151:Arsenic