Abstract
It has recently been discovered that organic and inorganic arsenics could be detrimental to human health. Although organic arsenic is less toxic than inorganic arsenic, it could form inorganic arsenic through chemical and biological processes in environmental systems. In this regard, the availability of tools for detecting organic arsenic species would be beneficial. Because As-sensing biosensors employing arsenic responsive genetic systems are regulated by ArsR which detects arsenics, the target selectivity of biosensors could be obtained by modulating the selectivity of ArsR. In this study, we demonstrated a shift in the specificity of E. coli cell-based biosensors from the detection of inorganic arsenic to that of organic arsenic, specifically phenylarsine oxide (PAO), through the genetic engineering of ArsR. By modulating the number and location of cysteines forming coordinate covalent bonds with arsenic species, an E. coli cell-based biosensor that was specific to PAO was obtained. Despite its restriction to PAO at the moment, it offers invaluable evidence of the potential to generate new biosensors for sensing organic arsenic species through the genetic engineering of ArsR.
Highlights
Heavy metals and metalloids, including arsenics, in environmental systems are typically quantified via an instrument-based analysis that is limited by several shortcomings such as expensive and time-consuming processes
We developed of a phenylarsine oxide (PAO) specific biosensor and demonstrated the potential to generate new biosensors for detecting organic arsenic species using genetic engineering
Organic arsenics cannot compared to inorganic arsenic species, owing to their relatively less toxicity
Summary
Heavy metals and metalloids, including arsenics, in environmental systems are typically quantified via an instrument-based analysis that is limited by several shortcomings such as expensive and time-consuming processes. Diverse sensors for monitoring metal(loid) and speedily—including electrochemical technique-based sensors, chemical compound-based sensors, metal binding protein coupled with fluorescent probe-based sensors and microorganism cell-based sensors—have been developed and reported [1,2,3,4]. Among these new techniques, living cell-based sensors, referred to as whole-cell bioreporters (WCBs), that use their own metal-responsive genetic systems have been extensively investigated as they are relatively uncomplicated and cheap [5,6]. Substantial efforts to generate new WCBs that are Sensors 2020, 20, 3039; doi:10.3390/s20113039 www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors
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