Main Technological Advancements in Bacterial Bioluminescent Biosensors Over the Last Two Decades

Environmental quality assessment is an extensive field of research due to the permanent increase of the stringency imposed by the legislative framework. To complete the wide panel of measurement methods, essentially based on physicochemical tools, some scientists focused on the development of alternative biological methods such as those based on the use of bioluminescent bacteria biosensors. The first report dedicated to the development of such biosensors dates back to 1967 and describes an analytical system designed to address the problem of air toxicity assessment. Nevertheless the available technologies in the photosensitive sensors field were not mature enough and, as a result, limited biosensor development possibilities. For about 20 years, the wide democratisation of photosensors coupled with advances in the genetic engineering field have allowed the expansion of the scope of possibilities of bioluminescent bacterial biosensors, allowing a significant emergence of these biotechnologies. This chapter retraces the history of the main technological evolutions that bacterial bioluminescent biosensors have known over the last two decades. Graphical Abstract.