title: Online monitoring of water toxicity by use of bioluminescent reporter bacterial biochips.
abstract: We describe a flow-through biosensor for online continuous water toxicity monitoring. At the heart of the device are disposable modular biochips incorporating agar-immobilized bioluminescent recombinant reporter bacteria, the responses of which are probed by single-photon avalanche diode detectors. To demonstrate the biosensor capabilities, we equipped it with biochips harboring both inducible and constitutive reporter strains and exposed it to a continuous water flow for up to 10 days. During these periods we challenged the biosensor with 2-h pulses of water spiked with model compounds representing different classes of potential water pollutants, as well as with a sample of industrial wastewater. The biosensor reporter panel detected all simulated contamination events within 0.5-2.5 h, and its response was indicative of the nature of the contaminating chemicals. We believe that a biosensor of the proposed design can be integrated into future water safety and security networks, as part of an early warning system against accidental or intentional water pollution by toxic chemicals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
authors.forename: Tal
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Elad
authors.forename: Ronen
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Almog
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yagur-Kroll
authors.forename: Klimentiy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Levkov
authors.forename: Sahar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Melamed
authors.forename: Yosi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shacham-Diamand
authors.forename: Shimshon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Belkin
mesh_terms: D000965:Antimony / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity; D001151:Arsenic / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity; D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D007220:Industrial Waste / Q000032:analysis; D008163:Luminescent Measurements / Q000295:instrumentation*; D046228:Microarray Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009862:Online Systems / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013997:Time Factors; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D007220:Industrial Waste; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D000965:Antimony; D001151:Arsenic