ABSTRACT
With the increasing need for real-time toxicity testing and the resulting advances in microscale assays, bacteria have gained increasing importance as test organisms. Several of the promoters selected to drive luminescence in the presented panel are inducible by potential deoxyribonucleic acid damage. As such, they may serve as convenient biosensors for the presence of potential genotoxicants. The relative ease with which bacteria can be genetically manipulated to quantitatively respond to certain stimuli opens a new horizon for the monitoring of ecotoxicity. By the fusion of sensor and reporter elements, bacteria can be "programmed" to emit a danger signal upon sensing either general or specific environmental stress factors. In this chapter, one approach to the exploitation of the potential was described: the fusion of Vibrio fischeri bioluminescence genes to promoters of Escherichia coli global regulatory stress-circuits. The resulting constructs, upon exposure to environmental hazards, emit light which is easy to monitor and quantify.
