One can’t stand on its own: Are non-luminescence traits necessary for V. fischeri colonization of E. scolopes?

Vibrio fischeri and Euprymna scolopes squid establish mutualistic symbiosis and select for each other in the natural environment. V. fischeri provides bioluminescent camouflage for E. scolopes while E. scolopes provides nutrients for V. fischeri. The most intriguing aspect of this relationship is that E. scolopes is highly selective and only allows sustained colonization by luminous, but not dark V. fischeri. Luminescence is the key symbiosis trait; however, other bacterial factors may also allow squid recognition. We hypothesized that there are luminescence linked traits that contribute to colonization. V. fischeri with luminescence variation was isolated and tested for oxidative resistance, morphology, siderophore, biofilm, chitinase activity, motility, and auxotrophy. Siderophore and chitinase activity demonstrated correlation with luminescence while all other phenotypes didn’t demonstrate direct relations

Secondary Metabolites Produced by the Marine Bacterium Halobacillus salinus That Inhibit Quorum Sensing-Controlled Phenotypes in Gram-Negative Bacteria

Certain bacteria use cell-to-cell chemical communication to coordinate community-wide phenotypic expression, including swarming motility, antibiotic biosynthesis, and biofilm production. Here we present a marine gram-positive bacterium that secretes secondary metabolites capable of quenching quorum sensing-controlled behaviors in several gram-negative reporter strains. Isolate C42, a Halobacillus salinus strain obtained from a sea grass sample, inhibits bioluminescence production by Vibrio harveyi in cocultivation experiments. With the use of bioassay-guided fractionation, two phenethylamide metabolites were identified as the active agents. The compounds additionally inhibit quorum sensing-regulated violacein biosynthesis by Chromobacterium violaceum CV026 and green fluorescent protein production by Escherichia coli JB525. Bacterial growth was unaffected at concentrations below 200 μg/ml. Evidence is presented that these nontoxic metabolites may act as antagonists of bacterial quorum sensing by competing with N-acyl homoserine lactones for receptor binding

Recent Progress in Optical Sensors for Biomedical Diagnostics

In recent years, several types of optical sensors have been probed for their aptitude in healthcare biosensing, making their applications in biomedical diagnostics a rapidly evolving subject. Optical sensors show versatility amongst different receptor types and even permit the integration of different detection mechanisms. Such conjugated sensing platforms facilitate the exploitation of their neoteric synergistic characteristics for sensor fabrication. This paper covers nearly 250 research articles since 2016 representing the emerging interest in rapid, reproducible and ultrasensitive assays in clinical analysis. Therefore, we present an elaborate review of biomedical diagnostics with the help of optical sensors working on varied principles such as surface plasmon resonance, localised surface plasmon resonance, evanescent wave fluorescence, bioluminescence and several others. These sensors are capable of investigating toxins, proteins, pathogens, disease biomarkers and whole cells in varied sensing media ranging from water to buffer to more complex environments such as serum, blood or urine. Hence, the recent trends discussed in this review hold enormous potential for the widespread use of optical sensors in early-stage disease prediction and point-of-care testing devices.DFG, 428780268, Biomimetische Rezeptoren auf NanoMIP-Basis zur Virenerkennung und -entfernung mittels integrierter Ansätz

BIOSENSING SYSTEMS FOR THE DETECTION OF BACTERIAL QUORUM SENSING MOLECULES: A TOOL FOR INVESTIGATING BACTERIA-RELATED DISORDERS AND FOOD SPOILAGE PREVENTION

Quorum sensing enables bacteria to communicate with bacteria of the same or different species, and to modulate their behavior in a cell-density dependent manner. Communication occurs by means of small quorum sensing signaling molecules (QSMs) whose concentration is proportional to the population size. When a QSM threshold concentration is reached, certain genes are expressed, thus allowing control of several processes, such as, virulence factor production, antibiotic production, and biofilm formation. Not only many pathogenic bacteria are known to produce QSMs, but also QSMs have been identified in some bacteria-related disorders. Therefore, quantitative detection of QSMs present in clinical samples may be a useful tool in the investigation and monitoring of bacteria-related diseases, thus prompting the use of QSMs as biomarkers of disease. Herein, we have developed and utilized whole-cell biosensing systems and protein based biosensing systems to detect QSMs in clinical samples, such as, saliva, stool, and bowel secretions. Additionally, since bacteria are responsible for food spoilage, we employed the developed biosensing systems to detect QSMs in food samples and demonstrated their applicability for early identification of food contamination. Furthermore, we have utilized these biosensing systems to screen antibacterial compounds employed for food preservation, namely, generally regarded as safe (GRAS) compounds, for their effect on quorum sensing

Light dazzles from the black box: Whole-cell biosensors are ready to inform on fundamental soil biological processes

Whole-cell biosensors are natural or engineered microorganisms producing signals in response to specific stimuli. This review introduces the use of whole-cell biosensors for the study of the soil system, discuss the recent developments and some current limitations and draws future prospects of the whole-cell biosensors for application to the study of the agro-ecosystems. The review focuses mainly on the lux- and gfp-inserted whole-cell biosensors producing bioluminescence and multicoloured fluorescent proteins, which allow an easy and reproducible detection of the signals from a large number of prokaryotic and eukaryotic soil-borne microorganisms. This review also points out how the whole-cell biosensors indicate the bioavailability of selected analyte, an information that cannot be straight forwardly extrapolated using the chemical methods of soil analysis. However, regardless of the immense progress in biotechnology and genetics that allows to construct whole-cell biosensors for virtually detecting any chemical at ultra low concentrations, the soil still remains the most extreme natural system to be studied with these biotechnological analytical tools. Although a lack of standardization for most of the constructed whole-cell biosensors along with the scarce knowledge of their performance concur to prevent their use in the official methods of soil and environmental analysis, owing to their stability and selectivity we restate that the whole-cell biosensors are ready to provide information on the main processes occurring in soil, and represent unprecedented sensitive tools for improving agriculture and for soil monitorin

Escherichia coli ATCC 8739 Biosensor for Preservative Efficacy Testing

The preservative challenge test is a regulatory requirement specified in various pharmacopoeias to determine the efficacy of preservatives. However, such testing is a labour-intensive repetitive task and often requires days before results can be generated. Microbial biosensors have the potential to provide a rapid and automated alternative to the traditional viable counting currently in use. However, the selection of appropriate promoters is essential. The bioluminescent reporter strains used in the current study comprise the Photorhabdus luminescence lux CDABE reporter genes under the control of five individual constitutive Escherichia coli promoters: outer lipoprotein (lpp); twin arginine translocase (tatA); lysine decarboxylase (ldc); lysyl t-RNA (lysS); and ribosomal protein (spc). The promoter plus lux CDABE constructs were cloned, ligated into the plasmid vector pBR322 and transformed into E. coli ATCC 8739. The bioluminescence intensity in the decreasing order of constitutive promoter was lpp > spc> tatA> ldc > lysS. The five biosensor strains tested successfully in PET assays and demonstrated accuracy with a minimum detection limit of 103 CFU/ml, a detection range of 6 orders magnitude, and yielded equivalent results to methods currently recommended by the pharmacopoeias. The bioluminescent biosensors were used to monitor the efficacy of preservatives; sorbic acid at concentrations of 0.031% to 0.2% at pH 5.0, and benzalkonium chloride at concentrations of 0.0062% to 0.00039% alone and in combination with 0.03% EDTA. The 99.9% percentage of bioluminescence reduction of tatA-lux, ldc-lux, lysS-lux, and spc-lux was statistically equivalent to the 3 log10 CFU/ml reduction as required by the Pharmacopeias’. Strong significant correlations between bioluminescence and the methods recommended by the pharmacopoeias were obtained when the biosensor strains were challenged with preservatives, for all except lpp-lux E. coli. The bioluminescence expressed by the lpp-lux biosensor was significantly lower during long-term stationary phase than it was for any of the other biosensors and was also significantly lower than for any of the other biosensors in the presence of preservatives. Since the plasmid copy number and viable counts for lpp-lux did not change under these conditions, it suggests that perhaps lpp-lux was down regulated under stress conditions. There were no statistically significant differences between the results of the bioluminescence assays and the results of the viable count and ATP chemiluminescence assay. Virtual foot printing (using Regulon DB database) demonstrated that two crp binding sites overlapping the -10 regions are located on the negative strand of the lysS promoter sequences and that one crp binding site is located in lpp. The biosensor strains ldc-lux exhibited levels of bioluminescence per cell significantly lower than spc in the presence of preservatives whilst there was a significant increase in bioluminescence per cell by tatA-lux under alkaline conditions (pH 8.9) during long-term stationary phase. Amongst the five biosensor strains tested in the current work, it was determined that the spc-lux strain would be the most attractive candidate for further work, since the bioluminescence expressed per cell was significantly greater, by 10-1000 times, than that expressed by the other four promoters when challenged with the preservatives tested with excellent significant correlations between bioluminescence expression and viable counts in the PET assays with the various preservatives in this study (R2: 8.79-1.00). The bioluminescent biosensor strains showed no statistical differences from the control strains (wildtype E.coli ATCC 8739 and E.coli carrying a promoterless [pBR322.lux] for adneylate energy charge (AEC), plasmid copy number (PCN) bioluminescence or viable counts over 28 days. The emission of bioluminescence by the four bioreporter strains across 28 days is reflected by the stability of PCN with correlations of 0.78-0.90, except for lpp-lux with R2: 0.59. The following promoter elements were found likely to assist greater expression of bioluminescence: an A+T level of approximately 50% between the -40 and -60 regions (the UP element); a G+C level of approximately 50% within the -10 and +1 regions; the extended -10 region and -10 region of consensus sequence RpoD (σ70/D)

Exploiting bioluminescence to enhance the analytical performance of whole-cell and cell-free biosensors for environmental and point-of-care applications

The routine health monitoring of living organisms and environment has become one of the major concerns of public interest. Therefore, there has been an increasing demand for fast and easy to perform monitoring technologies. The current available analytical techniques generally offer accurate and precise results; however, they often require clean samples and sophisticated equipment. Thus, they are not suitable for on site, real-time, cost-effective routine monitoring. To this end, biosensors represent suitable analytical alternative tools. Biosensors are analytical devices integrating a biological recognition element (i.e. antibody, receptor, cell) and a transducer able to convert the biological response into an easily measurable analytical signal. These tools can easily quantify an analyte or a class of analytes of interest even in a complex matrix, like clinical or environmental samples, thanks to the specificity of the biological components. Whole-cell biosensors among others offer unique features such as low cost of production and provide comprehensive functional information (i.e. detection of unclassified compounds and synergistic effects, information about the bioavailable concentration). During this PhD, several bioengineered whole-cell biosensors have been developed and optimized for environmental and point-of-care applications. Analytical performance of biosensors have been improved (i.e. low limit of detection, faster response time and wider dynamic range) thanks to synthetic biology and genetic engineering tools. Bacterial, yeast and 3D cell cultures of mammalian cell lines have been tailored at the molecular level to improve robustness and predictivity. Several reporter genes, i.e. colorimetric, fluorescent and bioluminescent proteins, have been also profiled for finding the best candidate for each point-of-need application. Furthermore, spectral resolution of different optical reporter proteins has been exploited and multiplex detection has been achieved. The inclusion of viability control strains provided a suitable tool for assessing non-specific effects on cell viability, correcting the analytical signal and increasing the analytical performance of ready-to-use cartridges

INVESTIGATION OF THE TOXICITY AND EFFLUX OF POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS AND HYDROXYLATED POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS IN \u3cem\u3eESCHERICHIA COLI\u3c/em\u3e

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants. Due to their properties, PCBs accumulate in the food-chain and post a threat to the health of human beings and wildlife. Hydroxylated PCBs (OH-PCBs) are oxidative metabolites of PCBs and are more hydrophilic than their parent PCBs. One of the best approaches to break down these contaminants is through bioremediation, which is an environmental friendly process that uses microorganisms to restore natural environment. Towards this goal, we have investigated the toxicity and accumulation of PCBs and OH-PCBs in a Gram-negative bacterium, Escherichia coli. We have also determined the role played by a primary multidrug efflux transporter AcrB on the accumulation of PCBs and OH-PCBs in bacterial cell. We found that one of the PCBs tested was toxic to E. coli, while different OH-PCBs have different levels of toxicity; the acrB knockout strain accumulated significantly more PCBs and OH-PCBs than the wild-type strain, suggesting that these compounds are substrates of the efflux pump; higher cytoplasmic concentrations of OH-PCBs were also observed in the acrB knockout strain using the biosensors. Based on these observations, we conclude that both PCBs and OH-PCBs are substrates of protein AcrB. Therefore the efflux activities of multidrug resistant pumps in Gram-negative bacteria should be considered while designing bioremediation approaches

CELL AND PROTEIN-BASED SENSING SYSTEMS FOR THE DETECTION OF ENVIRONMENTALLY AND PHYSIOLOGICALLY RELEVANT MOLECULES

The detection of small molecules in complex sample matrices such as environmental (surface and ground water, sediment, etc.) and biological (blood, serum, plasma, etc.) samples is of paramount importance for monitoring the distribution of environmental pollutants and their patterns of exposure within the population as well as diagnosing and managing diseases. Biosensors have demonstrated a singular ability to sensitively and selectively detect analytes in complex samples without the need for extensive sample preparation and pretreatment. Nature has demonstrated myriad examples of exquisite selectivity in spite of complexity and we seek to take advantage of that attribute in the development of novel biosensing systems. In the work presented here, we have developed both cell- and proteinbased biosensing systems for the detection of hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs) and protein-based sensing systems for the detection of glucose. In the development of a whole-cell sensing system, the regulatory protein, HbpR, and its associated promoter was used to modulate the expression of luciferase. Additionally, the effector binding domain of HbpR, HbpR-A, was isolated and modified with a solvatochromic fluorophore resulting in a proteinbased sensing system. For the detection of glucose, two different glucose binding proteins were engineered in an effort to tailor their characteristics, such as binding affinity and thermal stability, to develop a rugged, sensitive proteinbased sensing system. We envision that these biosensing systems will find applications in the areas of environmental pollutant monitoring and the management and treatment of diseases such as diabetes

Peptides as quorum sensing molecules : measurement techniques and obtained levels in vitro and in vivo

The expression of certain bacterial genes is regulated in a cell-density dependent way, a phenomenon called quorum sensing. Both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria use this type of communication, though the signal molecules (auto-inducers) used by them differ between both groups: Gram-negative bacteria use predominantly N-acyl homoserine lacton (AHL) molecules (autoinducer-1, AI-1) while Gram-positive bacteria use mainly peptides (autoinducer peptides, AIP or quorum sensing peptides). These quorum sensing molecules are not only involved in the inter-microbial communication, but can also possibly cross-talk directly or indirectly with their host. This review summarizes the currently applied analytical approaches for quorum sensing identification and quantification with additionally summarizing the experimentally found in vivo concentrations of these molecules in humans