Development of Colorimetric Whole-Cell Biosensor for Detection of Heavy Metals in Environment for Public Health

Abstract

Heavy metals cause various fetal diseases in humans. Heavy metals from factory wastewater can contaminate drinking water, fish, and crops. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) are commonly used to analyze heavy metal contents; however, these methods require pre-treatment processes and are expensive and complex. To overcome these limitations, three metal-sensing materials using a whole-cell biosensor in Escherichia coli (E. coli) were developed. Strains were engineered to harbor three kinds of plasmids containing the copA, zntA, and mer promoters for sensing copper, cadmium, and mercury, respectively. The luciferase (lux) gene was inserted as a reporter into the plasmid, which was later replaced with a fused protein sequence containing OmpA (1–159) and mCherry for optical detection. The constructed strains could detect mercury, cadmium, and copper at 0.1–0.75 ppm, 0.2–0.75 ppm, and 2–7.5 ppm, respectively, with linearity values of 0.99030, 0.99676, and 0.95933, respectively. The immobilization linearity value was 0.99765. Notably, these three heavy metals could be detected by visual analysis of the strains. Overall, these findings establish this novel sensor as a potential approach for heavy metal detection in biological samples and foods.

Material biologikoen integrazioa teknologian: biosentsoreak

“…Ingurumenaren alorrean, biosentsoreen aplikazioak oso ugariak dira. Adibideen artean, uretan (hondakin-ur, edateko ur eta ingurumeneko ur laginetan) eta lurzoruan dauden hainbat metal astunen biodetekzioa [35,36,37] edota ur-laginetan dauden plastikoen degradazioaren monitorizazioa eta sulfatoen neurketa [38,39] aipa daitezke. Gainera, mikroplastikoen presentziak sortutako toxikotasuna neurtzeko ere erabil daitezke.…”

Recent Advances in the Application of Bionanosensors for the Analysis of Heavy Metals in Aquatic Environments

“…For Hg, Cd, and Cu, the linear ranges of the produced strains were 0.1 ppm, 0.2 ppm, and 27.5 ppm, with linear ranges of 0.99030, 0.99676, and 0.95933, respectively. Visual inspection of the strains revealed the presence of these three heavy metals [ 113 ].…”

Emerging biotechnology applications in natural product and synthetic pharmaceutical analyses

“…Whole-cell biosensors are based on microorganisms. Kim modified Escherichia coli strains to contain copA , zntA , and mer promoters and inserted the luciferase ( lux ) gene as the reporter gene into the plasmid to respond to the induction of copper, cadmium, and mercury, respectively, to detect heavy metals 51 . Tu designed a nanochannel sensor made of Pb 2+ -specific peptide modified porous anodized aluminum membrane to detect lead ions in complex traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) samples 52 .…”