[Advance in the bioavailability monitoring of heavy metal based on microbial whole-cell sensor]

Microbial whole-cell biosensor is an excellent tool to assess the bioavailability of heavy metal in soil and water. However, the traditional physicochemical instruments are applied to detect the total metal. Furthermore, microbial whole-cell biosensor is simple, rapid and economical in manipulating, and is thus a highly qualified candidate for emergency detection of pollution incidents. The biological component of microbial whole-cell biosensor mostly consists of metalloregulatory proteins and reporter genes. In detail, metalloregulatory proteins mainly include the MerR family, ArsR family and RS family, and reporter genes mainly include gfp, lux and luc. Metalloregulatory protein and reporter gene are related to the sensitivity, specificity and properties in monitoring. The bioavailability of heavy metals is alterable under different conditions, influenced by pH, chelate and detection methods and so on. Increasing the accumulation of intracellular heavy metal, modifying the metalloregulatory proteins and optimizing the detecting conditions are important for improving the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the microbial whole-cell biosensor. The future direction of microbial whole-cell biosensor is to realize the monitoring of pollutions in situ and on line.