Long-duration environmental biosensing by recording analyte detection in DNA using recombinase memory.

ABSTRACT: Microbial biosensors that convert environmental information into real-time visual outputs are limited in their sensing abilities in complex environments, such as soil and wastewater, due to optical inaccessibility. Biosensors that could record transient exposure to analytes within a large time window for later retrieval represent a promising approach to solve the accessibility problem. Here, we test the performance of recombinase-memory biosensors that sense a sugar (arabinose) and a microbial communication molecule (3-oxo-C12-L-homoserine lactone) over 8 days (~70 generations) following analyte exposure. These biosensors sense the analyte and trigger the expression of a recombinase enzyme which flips a segment of DNA, creating a genetic memory, and initiates fluorescent protein expression

SUBMITTER: Kalvapalle PB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11022584 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature