Advances in preservation methods: keeping biosensor microorganisms alive and active

Abstract

The ability of bacteria to sense their surroundings can be employed to measure the bioavailability and toxicity of pollutants. However, long-term maintenance of both viability and activity of the sensor bacteria is required for the development of cell-based devices for environmental monitoring. To meet these demands, various techniques to conserve such bacteria have been reported, including freeze drying, vacuum drying, continuous cultivation, and immobilisation in biocompatible polymers of organic or inorganic origin. Much effort has been invested in merging these bacterial preservation schemes with the construction of sensor cell arrays on platforms such as biochips or optic fibres, hopefully leading to effective miniaturised whole-cell biosensor systems. These approaches hold much promise for the future. Nevertheless, their eventual implementation in practical devices calls for significant enhancement of current knowledge on formulation of reporter microorganisms

Published in

Current Opinion in Biotechnology
2006, volume: 17, number: 1, pages: 43-49
Publisher: CURRENT BIOLOGY LTD

SLU Authors

• Bjerketorp, Joakim

  • Department of Molecular Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Håkansson, Sebastian

  • Department of Molecular Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Jansson, Janet

  • Department of Molecular Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Agricultural Science
Food Science

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2005.12.005

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/8177