P-benzoquinone-mediated amperometric biosensor developed with Psychrobacter sp. for toxicity testing of heavy metals

A rapid and reliable p-benzoquinone-mediated amperometric biosensor (ToxTell) incorporated with Psychrobacter sp. to detect toxicities of heavy metal ions has been developed. This ToxTell biosensor relied on the real-time monitoring of inhibition effect for metabolism by toxicant to provide early detection and assessment of the degree of toxicity to living cells. The effect of growth phase on the sensitivity of Psychrobacter sp. biosensor was studied. The results showed that at the middle of the logarithmic phase or transition from logarithmic to stationary phase, the Psychrobacter sp. ToxTell biosensor had a higher sensitivity to toxicants. The effects of pH, salinity in respiratory substrates and incubation time on the performance of Psychrobacter sp. biosensor were also investigated. EC(50) values of Cu(2+), Cd(2+), Zn(2+), Cr(6+), Hg(2+) and Pb(2+) to Psychrobacter sp. determined at incubation time 30 min were 2.6 mg/L, 47.3 mg/L, 10.9 mg/L, 14.0 mg/L, 0.8 mg/L and 110.1 mg/L, respectively. The ToxTell microbial biosensor developed in this work demonstrated excellent storage stability for more than 60 days. The biosensor could incorporate different microbial species as biocomponent to reflect the comprehensive values for toxicants in real samples and the results therefore had high degree of validity.