Enhanced quorum sensing of anode biofilm for better sensing linearity and recovery capability of microbial fuel cell toxicity sensor

Jingyi Pan; Jingping Hu; Bingchuan Liu; Jianfeng Li; Dongliang Wang; Chenpeng Bu; Xiaoxuan Wang; Keke Xiao; Sha Liang; Jiakuan Yang; Huijie Hou

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2019.108906

Enhanced quorum sensing of anode biofilm for better sensing linearity and recovery capability of microbial fuel cell toxicity sensor

Environ Res. 2020 Feb:181:108906. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2019.108906. Epub 2019 Nov 12.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, PR China; Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment, Disposal and Recycling, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China.
² School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, PR China; Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment, Disposal and Recycling, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China; State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China.
³ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, PR China; Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment, Disposal and Recycling, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China. Electronic address: Bingchuan@hust.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, PR China; Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment, Disposal and Recycling, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China. Electronic address: houhuijie@hust.edu.cn.

PMID: 31740039
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2019.108906

Abstract

MFC toxicity sensor has major hindrances that limit its practical application, such as the poor concentration-response relationship and inferior recovery capability after high toxicity shock. Till now, the direct influence of intrinsic properties on the performance of MFC toxicity sensor has not been well understood. Quorum sensing (QS) is a cell-to-cell communication strategy that indirectly affects the intrinsic properties of electroactive biofilms. In this work, commercially available QS autoinducers (AHLs) were applied to MFC toxicity sensor to manipulate anode biofilm for better sensing performance. The results showed that the addition of AHLs (C6-HSL, 3-OXO-C12-HSL) led to higher sensing linearity to a wider range of Pb²⁺. The voltage of MFC sensors with AHLs addition fully recovered even after 10 mg/L Cu²⁺ shock, indicating an enhanced recovery capability of MFC toxicity sensor. It was found that higher live/dead cells ratio and increased exoelectrogen Geobacter abundance were responsible for the superior sensing linearity and recovery capability of MFC toxicity sensor. Our work presented a novel and effective way to advance the process of MFC toxicity sensor application from the perspective of EABs.

Keywords: Microbial fuel cell; Quorum sensing; Recovery capability; Sensing linearity; Toxicity sensor.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Bioelectric Energy Sources*
Biofilms
Electrodes
Quorum Sensing*