title: A bacterial reporter panel for the detection and classification of antibiotic substances.
abstract: The ever-growing use of pharmaceutical compounds, including antibacterial substances, poses a substantial pollution load on the environment. Such compounds can compromise water quality, contaminate soils, livestock and crops, enhance resistance of microorganisms to antibiotic substances, and hamper human health. We report the construction of a novel panel of genetically engineered Escherichia coli reporter strains for the detection and classification of antibiotic substances. Each of these strains harbours a plasmid that carries a fusion of a selected gene promoter to bioluminescence (luxCDABE) reporter genes and an alternative tryptophan auxotrophy-based non-antibiotic selection system. The bioreporter panel was tested for sensitivity and responsiveness to diverse antibiotic substances by monitoring bioluminescence as a function of time and of antibiotic concentrations. All of the tested antibiotics were detected by the panel, which displayed different response patterns for each substance. These unique responses were analysed by several algorithms that enabled clustering the compounds according to their functional properties, and allowed the classification of unknown antibiotic substances with a high degree of accuracy and confidence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Sahar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Melamed
authors.forename: Chaim
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lalush
authors.forename: Tal
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Elad
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yagur-Kroll
authors.forename: Shimshon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Belkin
authors.forename: Rami
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pedahzur
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000032:analysis* / Q000145:classification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000145:classification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D006801:Humans; D008156:Luciferases / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D030781:Organisms, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D008156:Luciferases