An autonomous microbial sensor enables long-term detection of TNT explosive in natural soil.

ABSTRACT: Microbes can be engineered to sense target chemicals for environmental and geospatial detection. However, when engineered microbes operate in real-world environments, it remains unclear how competition with natural microbes affect their performance over long time periods. Here, we engineer sensors and memory-storing genetic circuits inside the soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis to sense the TNT explosive and maintain a long-term response, using predictive models to design riboswitch sensors, tune transcription rates, and improve the genetic circuit's dynamic range. We characterize the autonomous microbial sensor's ability to detect TNT in a natural soil system, measuring single-cell and population-level behavior over a 28-day period. The autonomous microbial sensor activates its response by

SUBMITTER: Essington EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11612163 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature