TY - JOUR
T1 - Development of a whole-cell biosensor for ethylene oxide and ethylene
AU - Moratti, Claudia F.
AU - Yang, Sui Nin Nicholas
AU - Scott, Colin
AU - Coleman, Nicholas V.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Microbial Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2024/6
Y1 - 2024/6
N2 - Ethylene and ethylene oxide are widely used in the chemical industry, and ethylene is also important for its role in fruit ripening. Better sensing systems would assist risk management of these chemicals. Here, we characterise the ethylene regulatory system in Mycobacterium strain NBB4 and use these genetic parts to create a biosensor. The regulatory genes etnR1 and etnR2 and cognate promoter Petn were combined with a fluorescent reporter gene (fuGFP) in a Mycobacterium shuttle vector to create plasmid pUS301-EtnR12P. Cultures of M. smegmatis mc2-155(pUS301-EtnR12P) gave a fluorescent signal in response to ethylene oxide with a detection limit of 0.2 μM (9 ppb). By combining the epoxide biosensor cells with another culture expressing the ethylene monooxygenase, the system was converted into an ethylene biosensor. The co-culture was capable of detecting ethylene emission from banana fruit. These are the first examples of whole-cell biosensors for epoxides or aliphatic alkenes. This work also resolves long-standing questions concerning the regulation of ethylene catabolism in bacteria.
AB - Ethylene and ethylene oxide are widely used in the chemical industry, and ethylene is also important for its role in fruit ripening. Better sensing systems would assist risk management of these chemicals. Here, we characterise the ethylene regulatory system in Mycobacterium strain NBB4 and use these genetic parts to create a biosensor. The regulatory genes etnR1 and etnR2 and cognate promoter Petn were combined with a fluorescent reporter gene (fuGFP) in a Mycobacterium shuttle vector to create plasmid pUS301-EtnR12P. Cultures of M. smegmatis mc2-155(pUS301-EtnR12P) gave a fluorescent signal in response to ethylene oxide with a detection limit of 0.2 μM (9 ppb). By combining the epoxide biosensor cells with another culture expressing the ethylene monooxygenase, the system was converted into an ethylene biosensor. The co-culture was capable of detecting ethylene emission from banana fruit. These are the first examples of whole-cell biosensors for epoxides or aliphatic alkenes. This work also resolves long-standing questions concerning the regulation of ethylene catabolism in bacteria.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85196802935&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1751-7915.14511
DO - 10.1111/1751-7915.14511
M3 - Article
C2 - 38925606
AN - SCOPUS:85196802935
SN - 1751-7907
VL - 17
JO - Microbial Biotechnology
JF - Microbial Biotechnology
IS - 6
M1 - e14511
ER -