Anhydrobiotic chironomid larval motion-based multi-sensing microdevice for the exploration of survivable locations

Yo Tanaka; Doudou Ma; Satoshi Amaya; Yusufu Aishan; Yigang Shen; Shun-Ichi Funano; Tao Tang; Yoichiroh Hosokawa; Oleg Gusev; Takashi Okuda; Takahiro Kikawada; Yaxiaer Yalikun

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104639

Anhydrobiotic chironomid larval motion-based multi-sensing microdevice for the exploration of survivable locations

iScience. 2022 Jul 20;25(8):104639. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104639. eCollection 2022 Aug 19.

Authors

Yo Tanaka^{1

2}, Doudou Ma^{1

2}, Satoshi Amaya¹, Yusufu Aishan^{1

2}, Yigang Shen¹, Shun-Ichi Funano¹, Tao Tang³, Yoichiroh Hosokawa³, Oleg Gusev⁴, Takashi Okuda⁵, Takahiro Kikawada⁵, Yaxiaer Yalikun^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR), RIKEN, 1-3 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
² Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-3 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
³ Graduate School of Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5 Takayamacho, Ikoma, Nara 630-0192, Japan.
⁴ RIKEN Cluster for Science, Technology and Innovation Hub (RCSTI), RIKEN, 1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 230-0045, Japan.
⁵ Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, NARO, 1-2 Owashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8634, Japan.

Abstract

African chironomid (Polypedilum vanderplanki) larvae can suspend their metabolism by undergoing severe desiccation and then resume this activity by simple rehydration. We present a microdevice using interdigital comb electrodes to detect the larval motion using the natural surface charge of the living larvae in water. The larvae were most active 2 h after soaking them in water at 30°C; they exhibited motions with 2 Hz frequency. This was comparable to the signal obtained from the microdevice via fast Fourier transform (FFT) processing. The amplitude of the voltage and current were 0.11 mV and 730 nA, respectively. They would be enough to be detected by a low power consumption microcomputer. Temperature and pH sensing were demonstrated by detecting the vital motions of the revived larvae under different conditions. This multi-functional biosensor will be a useful microdevice to search for survivable locations under extreme environmental conditions like those on other planets.

Keywords: Animal physiology; Nanotechnology; Sensor; Space sciences.