Use of whole-cell bioreporters to assess bioavailability of contaminants in aquatic systems

Yi Zhu; Evrim Elcin; Mengyuan Jiang; Boling Li; Hailong Wang; Xiaokai Zhang; Zhenyu Wang

doi:10.3389/fchem.2022.1018124

Use of whole-cell bioreporters to assess bioavailability of contaminants in aquatic systems

Front Chem. 2022 Sep 30:10:1018124. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2022.1018124. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yi Zhu¹, Evrim Elcin², Mengyuan Jiang¹, Boling Li³, Hailong Wang⁴, Xiaokai Zhang¹, Zhenyu Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental and Civil Engineering, Institute of Environmental Processes and Pollution Control, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China.
² Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Division of Enzyme and Microbial Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Aydın, Turkey.
³ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China.
⁴ Biochar Engineering Technology Research Center of Guangdong Province, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Foshan University, Foshan, China.

Abstract

Water contamination has become increasingly a critical global environmental issue that threatens human and ecosystems' health. Monitoring and risk assessment of toxic pollutants in water bodies is essential to identifying water pollution treatment needs. Compared with the traditional monitoring approaches, environmental biosensing via whole-cell bioreporters (WCBs) has exhibited excellent capabilities for detecting bioavailability of multiple pollutants by providing a fast, simple, versatile and economical way for environmental risk assessment. The performance of WCBs is determined by its elements of construction, such as host strain, regulatory and reporter genes, as well as experimental conditions. Previously, numerous studies have focused on the design and construction of WCB rather than improving the detection process and commercialization of this technology. For investigators working in the environmental field, WCB can be used to detect pollutants is more important than how they are constructed. This work provides a review of the development of WCBs and a brief introduction to genetic construction strategies and aims to summarize key studies on the application of WCB technology in detection of water contaminants, including organic pollutants and heavy metals. In addition, the current status of commercialization of WCBs is highlighted.

Keywords: biosensor; environmental biotechnology; environmental management; heavy metal; organic pollutant; water pollution monitoring.

Publication types

Review