Engineering exoelectrogens for versatile and fast underwater sensing
Abstract
Integrating miniature sensing systems for chemicals as part of autonomous vehicleswould give unprecedented ability to detect and re"spond to international threats. While avariety of technologies serve as field-deployable, fast, and highly sensitive sensors, noex""isting technology offers sufficient speed, selectivity and chemical versatility in theseas. Here we propose combining protein and p"athway engineering with electricalengineering to create fast whole cell bioelectronic devices that are suitable for real-timedetection of trace levels of chemicals in underwater environments. Our ultimate objective is to develop abiotic and biotic parts that can be assembled into small devices that rapidly sense a wide range of chemicals in parallel. Our hypothesis is that we can construct fast and selective bioelectronic sensors using allosterically regulated redox proteins as switches to turn electron flow ~on~ and ~of"f~, coupling this electron flow to membrane-bound quinols, and then outputting it as current at the cell surface. To test this hypot""hesis, we propose to develop in a single bacterial strain: (i) a chemically-responsive protein electron carrier that functions as a"" fast allosteric redox switch, (ii) a coupling module which directs electron flux from switch to the quinol pool, and (iii) an elect"ron output module that mediates electron flux from the quinol pool to the extracellular surface. By obviating the need for slow tran"scriptional and translational regulation steps, the devices arising from these efforts will enable chemical sensing that is many ord"ers of magnitude faster than the current state-of-the art whole cell bioelectronic sensors.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 07, 2017
- Source ID
- N000141712639
Entities
People
- Jonathan J Silberg
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Rice University
- United States Navy