The use of yeast and moulds as sensing elements in biosensors

Role of Aspergillus niger acrA in Arsenic Resistance and Its Use as the Basis for an Arsenic Biosensor

“…Biosensors and bioreporters are beginning to emerge as safe, alternate methods to detect environmental pollutants such as arsenic (22,29,50). Although several arsenic biosensors have been reported, these traditionally rely on bacterial reporter systems (7), which have a relatively narrow tolerance to variation in culture systems, transportation, and storage. No commercial biosensors are currently in use in affected countries.…”

Amperometric Biosensors for Lactate, Alcohols, and Glycerol Assays in Clinical Diagnostics

“…Previous bacterial biosensors for L-lactate were successfully constructed using the whole cells of Paracoccus denitrificans (Kalab & Skladal, 1994), Acetobacter pasteurianus (Luong et al, 1989), Alcaligenes eutrophus (Plegge et al, 2000) and Escherichia coli (Adamowicz & Burstein, 1987). Physical robustness of yeasts in comparison to bacteria and superior tolerances to pH, temperature and osmolarity/ionic strength make them the preferred microorganisms, with the potential to be used as biological recognition elements for cell-based biosensors (Baronian, 2004). The application of the yeast H. anomala to oxidise L-lactate was investigated earlier by Racek et al using a platinum electrode, polarised to the potential of +350 mV vs. Ag/AgCl using potassium ferricyanide as a soluble mediator (Racek & Musil, 1987a, 1987b, and later by Kulys et al using carbon paste electrodes and different mediators (potassium ferricyanide, phenazine methosulfate, organic salt of TMPD/TCNQ, methylene green, Mendola's blue) at potentials of +50-300 mV vs. SCE (Kulys et al, 1992).…”

Saccharomyces Cerevisiae as a Tool to Evaluate the Effects of Herbicides on Eukaryotic Life

“…iii. Wild-type yeasts can be used as biosensors and a valid tool for preliminary evaluations of xenobiotic toxicity (Baronian, 2004) (Campanella et al, 1995).…”