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Figure. 1

Biological recognition elements and signal transducers used in biosensors for environmental applications.


Biosensors for Environmental Applications
Biocatalytic Electrochemical

Enzymes

 Potentiometric
Catalytic transformation of the pollutant into a sensor-detectable form Amperometric
--- pollutant ------enzyme------
  • product
    		•  Conductance
    ---- ----
    Inhibition of the enzyme activity by the pollutant
      --substrate -----pollutant------
  • product
    		•
    ----

    Bioaffinity

    		Optical-Electronic
    Antibodies Light addressable potentiometric sensor
    Compound or class-specific affinity toward the pollutant (typically competitive assay format) Surface plasmon resonance

    --Ab + tracer + pollutant ---------x-------

    		•  Ab-pollutant complex + tracer-pollutant complex
    ----
    Nucleic Acids Optical
    Detection of pollutant-induced DNA damage Absorbance
    Detection of a microorganism by hybridization to a species-specific sequence Luminescence
    ---- Fluorescence

    Microorganism-Based

    Total internal reflectance fluorescence
    Pollutant-dependent increase in cellular respiration

    pollutant-(substrates)

    		 -- test organism--
  		•

    sensor-detectable response

    Acoustic

    ---- Quartz crystal microbalance
    Inhibition of cellular respiration by the pollutant
    Surface acoustic wave

     respiratory
    -- substrates

    		 -- pollutant --x-->

    sensor-detectable response
    Surface transverse wave
    ----
    Promoter recognition by specific pollutant followed by gene expression, enzyme synthesis, and catalytic activity

    --- pollutant

    		-- test organism-->

    sensor-detectable response

    Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences

    Research & Development | National Exposure Research Laboratory

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