Team:Nanjing-China/Background
Due to their invisibility and perniciousness, detecting them as specific and sensitive as possible is a must. However, traditional methods have sort of drawbacks such as poor stability, susceptible to interference, complicated to operate, expensive and so on. To solve the problems, we come up with an idea about biosensor. By using biological components such as enzymes, antibodies, sub-cellular components and microorganisms to obtain information, we then build up a whole-cell system with these biosensors to detect out target gases, which is exactly whole-cell sensor.
The detecting experiences a series of links. First, the receptor of the cell receives certain extracellular signals. Then through the signal transduction pathways, response element is activated and induce the transcription of the reporter gene. At last, the reporting protein is expressed and reflect the detecting outcome. The whole-cell sensing systems have enormous potential and advantages in application. Taking microorganism as biosensors’ carrier allows a rapid proliferation which accommodates to the large-scale application. And their portability permits the on-site monitoring. Concerning about the cost, they are not only inexpensive but also easy to restore. Most importantly, thanks to the Intracellular cascade reactions to magnify signals, the whole-cell sensing systems demonstrate excellent specificity, sensitivity and stability, which are the ultimate aims for detecting detrimental gases. So we can take advantage of it to detect the three dangerous gases.
The three kind of dangerous gas that we chose are hydrogen, formaldehyde and hydrogen formaldehyde.
Hydrogen, is not common in our daily life. But it is likely to be leaked from chemical factory. Any spark can induce terrifying explosion, which can expose great danger to the safety of industry production.
Formaldehyde hides in every corner of our houses and has pungent odor. It can usually discovered in decoration materials as well as furniture, Besides, Illegal businessmen uses formaldehyde to improve the color and taste of food. Formaldehyde is directly related to our health.
Hydrogen sulfide can also escape from the chemical factories like hydrogen. But it is lethally toxic. In our daily life, It is often generated from decayed food and is easily dissolved in water, which makes its pollution area considerably large.
All of hydrogen, formaldehyde and hydrogen formaldehyde are closely related to the industry and our daily life. The use of sensor can help to issue an early warning once there’s any leakage, thus preventing a large-scale leakage. Compared to the traditional methods, whole-cell sensor has quite many advantages. It can be portable, and easy to operate. It has the character of high stability and is unsusceptible to interference. Besides, with the large supply and proliferation of the bacteria, the whole-cell sensor can’t be too expensive, making it accessible to ordinary people. With all the advantages, we believe our sensors make sense and have a broad market prospect.
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1.Receive extracellular signals 2.Singal traceduction pathways 3.Response element is activated 4.Induced the transcription of the reporter gene |
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