Pickering emulsion-enhanced Vibrio fischeri assay for ecotoxicity assessment of highly hydrophobic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Accurate ecotoxicity assessment of contaminated soil is critical to public health, and the luminescent bacteria (Vibrio fischeri) method is the most commonly used. Hydrophobic compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil cannot be in contact with luminescent bacteria due to their low water solubility so that the luminescence inhibitory effect cannot be observed. The underestimated biological toxicity makes the test unreliable and en-dangers public health and safety. The commonly adopted improved method of adding cosolvents has limited effect, it was only effective for low-hydrophobicity chemicals and could not be used for ecotoxicity evaluation of high-hydrophobicity chemicals. Therefore, we constructed Pickering emulsions using luminescent bacteria modified with n-dodecanol in which PAHs were dissolved in the oil phase, n-tetradecane. Then the luminescent bacteria could tightly adhere to the oil-water interface and contact PAHs. As a result, their bioluminescence was suppressed to varying degrees depending on the chemical species and concentrations. With no solubility limitation, highly hydrophobic PAHs could even completely inhibit bacterial bioluminescence, hence the toxicity information was accurately displayed and the median effect concentration (EC₅₀) values could be calculated. This Pickering emulsion-based method was successfully applied for the accurate ecotoxicity evaluation of highly hydrophobic PAHs and soil samples contaminated with them, which all previous methods could not achieve. This method overcomes the problem of ecotoxicity evaluation of hydrophobic compounds, and has great potential for practical application, whether it is pure chemicals or various real samples from the ecological environment.

Monitoring of the yogurt fermentation process based on a rapid bio-luminescent chiral pattern recognition of amino acids

A luminescent bacterial sensor array was established for the discrimination of multiple chiral amino acids and the monitoring of the yogurt fermentation process.

Polyglycerol-Based Macromolecular Iron Chelator Adjuvants for Antibiotics To Treat Drug-Resistant Bacteria

Iron is an essential micronutrient for life. Its redox activity is a key component in a plethora of vital enzymatic reactions that take place in processes such as drug metabolism, DNA synthesis, steroid synthesis, gene regulation, and cellular respiration (oxygen transport and the electron transport chain). Bacteria are highly dependent on iron for their survival and growth and have specific mechanisms to acquire iron. Limiting the availability of iron to bacteria, thereby preventing their growth, provides new opportunities to treat infection in the era of the persistent rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In this work, we have developed macromolecular iron chelators, conjugates of a high-affinity iron chelator (HBEDS) with polyglycerol, in an attempt to sequester iron uptake by bacteria to limit their growth in order to enhance antibiotic activity. The new macromolecular chelators are successful in slowing the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and worked as an efficient bacteriostatic against S. aureus. Further, these cytocompatible macrochelators acted as effective adjuvants to prevent bacterial growth when used in conjunction with antibiotics. The adjuvant activity of the macrochelators depends on their molecular weight and the chelator density on these molecules. These selective macro iron(III) chelators are highly efficient in growth inhibition and killing of methicillin-resistant S. aureus in conjunction with a low concentration of rifampicin.

Cloning and expression of the flavin reductase LuxG from Photobacterium leiognathi YL and its improvement for NADH detection

In the present study, we aimed to purify and characterize LuxG obtained from Photobacterium leiognathi YL and examine its improvement for NADH detection. To this end, we cloned and expressed the putative luxG gene of P. leiognathi YL in the Escherichia coli BL21 strain. The product of luxG is a flavin reductase that consists of 206 amino acids, corresponding to a subunit molecular mass of ∼26 kDa. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that P. leiognathi YL LuxG has a rather distant evolutionary relationship with Frase I of Aliivibrio fischeri and Frp of Vibrio harveyi, but a close evolutionary relationship with Fre from Escherichia coli, which are all enzymes related to oxido-reductase. Further comparison shows that the changes in the functionally conserved sites may contribute to the functional divergence of LuxG and Fre. LuxG could supply reduced flavin mononucleotide (FMN) for bacterial luminescence by catalyzing the oxidation of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide hydrogen (NADH). Based on this, a coupled pure enzyme bioluminescent system was established and used for NADH detection. The NADH samples with concentrations of 0.1-1 nM were used to validate the linear relationship, and it was found that the logarithmic deviations were less than 3%, which showed more sensitive and stable results than the NADH detection by recombinant E. coli including the exogenously expressed luciferase and intrinsic Fre. Investigation of P. leiognathi YL LuxG would provide a basic understanding of its evolution, and structural and functional properties, which might contribute to the development of a NADH detection kit in the future.