IDBR: The LuxArray Scanner: Surveying the Environment with Biomicroelectronic Cellular Reporter Arrays

细菌生物报告器的设计目的是产生可测量的信号，以响应其环境中的特定化学或物理试剂。因为它们是有生命的传感器，它们作为一个生物单位，对环境的变化做出持续和实时的反应。此外，它们报告污染物的生物利用度（即污染物对生命系统的影响），而不是像大多数分析方法那样仅仅报告污染物浓度。杜邦公司设计了一套689个大肠杆菌生物报告基因，其中包含与生物发光lux操纵子连接的独特基因启动子。这种“LuxArray”是一种强大的工具，可以大规模地分析生物体对其环境的转录反应。通过监测那些产生可见光的细菌生物报告者，人们可以识别在已知的特定环境条件下被激活的基因，比如化学污染物的输入。这项研究工作的目标是建立LuxArray作为环境监测系统的效用，该系统使用人工添加的水样和从Chattanooga Creek（位于田纳西州Chattanooga的煤焦油污染现场）获得的样品。LuxArray生物报告细胞将作为游离细胞和固定在乳胶基质中的细胞进行测试。预期的长期成果是，LuxArray仪器可在现场部署，能够持续监测环境生态系统，并实时报告生态系统中可能发生的化学损害，同时通过生物发光“指纹”识别这些化学物质。由此产生的数据可用于预测环境健康，并有助于建立预测性风险评估模型。项目活动和成果将在http://www.ceb.utk.edu上提供。

Bacterial bioreporters are designed to produce a measurable signal in response to a specific chemical or physical agent in their environment. Since they are living sensors, they respond as a biological unit both continuously and in real-time to environmental changes. Moreover, they report on contaminant bioavailability (i.e., the effect the contaminant has on a living system) rather than merely on contaminant concentration, as most analytical methods do. A suite of 689 E. coli bioreporters containing unique genetic promoters linked to the bioluminescent lux operon was designed by DuPont. This "LuxArray" serves as a powerful tool to profile on a massive scale an organism's transcriptional response to its environment. By monitoring those bacterial bioreporters that generate visible light, one can identify genes activated under known specific environmental conditions, such as the input of a chemical contaminant. The goal of this research effort is to establish the utility of the LuxArray as an environmental monitoring system using artificially spiked water samples and samples obtained from Chattanooga Creek, a coal tar contaminated field site located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. LuxArray bioreporters will be tested both as free cells and as cells immobilized in a latex matrix. The expected long-term outcome is a field deployable LuxArray instrument capable of continuously monitoring an environmental ecosystem and reporting in real-time chemical insults that may occur within that ecosystem with concurrent bioluminescent "fingerprint" identification of what those chemicals are. Resulting data can then be used to forecast environmental health and contribute to models of predictive risk assessment. Project activity and outcomes will be available at http://www.ceb.utk.edu.