Optical Biosensor for Marine Microbial Process Studies: Development Phase II

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0083193KempThis technology development project will address how modern molecular techniques can provide new and fundamental insights into marine microbial communities and their activities. Studies of microbial processes have lagged far behind the technological revolution in oceanography. This project, applying biosensor technology, will continue development of a prototype fiber-optic, nucleic acid hybridization biosensor for rapid, quantitative detection of the abundance and expression of targeted bacterial genes, and the activity of targeted organisms in a mixed microbial community. The biosensor is novel in its design, in its application to marine microbial process studies, and in the proposed use of RNA targets that provide a natural signal amplification to increase sensitivity. The mail objective is to develop a highly sensitive, flexible instrument that can be applied to a broad suite of ecological problems. The components of the prototype system are relatively inexpensive, compact, and simple to operate. Procedures for extracting and purifying nucleic acids require ordinary laboratory skills and do not require any unusual equipment not already found in a typical molecular-biology laboratory. It is intended that the proposed instrument and analytical procedures be broadly useful and eventually be automated such that the system would be useful for remote/moored and continuous underway monitoring of marine microbial processes.