IDBR: The LuxArray Scanner: Surveying the Environment with Biomicroelectronic Cellular Reporter Arrays

University Of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville TN

Investigators

Abstract

Bacterial bioreporters are designed to produce a measurable signal in response to a specific chemical or physical agent in their environment. Since they are living sensors, they respond as a biological unit both continuously and in real-time to environmental changes. Moreover, they report on contaminant bioavailability (i.e., the effect the contaminant has on a living system) rather than merely on contaminant concentration, as most analytical methods do. A suite of 689 E. coli bioreporters containing unique genetic promoters linked to the bioluminescent lux operon was designed by DuPont. This "LuxArray" serves as a powerful tool to profile on a massive scale an organism's transcriptional response to its environment. By monitoring those bacterial bioreporters that generate visible light, one can identify genes activated under known specific environmental conditions, such as the input of a chemical contaminant. The goal of this research effort is to establish the utility of the LuxArray as an environmental monitoring system using artificially spiked water samples and samples obtained from Chattanooga Creek, a coal tar contaminated field site located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. LuxArray bioreporters will be tested both as free cells and as cells immobilized in a latex matrix. The expected long-term outcome is a field deployable LuxArray instrument capable of continuously monitoring an environmental ecosystem and reporting in real-time chemical insults that may occur within that ecosystem with concurrent bioluminescent "fingerprint" identification of what those chemicals are. Resulting data can then be used to forecast environmental health and contribute to models of predictive risk assessment. Project activity and outcomes will be available at http://www.ceb.utk.edu.