Microdetectives: Fundamentals, Fabrication, and Applications of Electrochemical Microbial Biosensors

Abstract

Microbial biosensors are devices in which whole cells (biorecognition elements) are closely attached to a transducer making reading a signal correlated to the concentration of a target analyte possible. Since the first reports on this biosensing principle and during the following five decades of research and development of microbial biosensors, electrochemical transducers have been frequently used due to their low price, wide range of properties, and user-friendly performance with electrochemical biosensors. Here, the fundamental principles of detection, characteristic features, and typical preparation methods are briefly introduced. Further, typical applications for different types of microbial electrochemical biosensors are reviewed, covering illustrative applications of amperometric, potentiometric, and conductivity-based biosensors along with biosensing applications of microbial fuel cells. Genetic manipulations of biosensing bacteria show great promise for the further development of microbial biosensors, biocomputing, and biologic circuits. This aspect is also briefly covered herein. This review is a brief but comprehensive introduction to the diversity and possibilities offered by electrochemical microbial biosensors.