LUMINESCENT BIOMONITORING OF BENZENE-DERIVATIVES IN THE ENVIRONMENT USING RECOMBINANT ESCHERICHIA-COLI

For the protection of the deterioration of the environment, pollutants should be reduced as much as possible. Therefore, a sensitive detection method of environmental pollutants is required. TOL plasmid responsible for the degradation of benzene and its derivatives is fused with the gene of firefly luciferase to breed a luminescent bacteria which can be applied to the environmental monitoring of these chemicals. Measurement of the bacteria-generated photons by a photon-counting device is utilized to estimate quantitatively the concentrations of pollutants. The luciferase is significantly induced in the bacteria, depending on the pollutant concentration. The lower detection limit is a few ppm for a benzene derivative, although the induction effect of each derivative is different. Biomonitoring, therefore, potentially offers a rapid and sensitive detection technique for environmental protection from industrial pollutants.