GFP expressing bacterial biosensor to measure lead contamination in aquatic environment

Lead from paints, plumbing materials,waste crankcase oil, batteries, etc. pollute the environment and become available to animals as contaminated forage and water.Effective pollution mitigation requires an understanding of the sources and quantities of heavy-metal inputs.In the present study, a lead-responsive biosensor has been made by placing the green fluorescent protein (GFP)reporter gene under the control of the lead resistance regulatory element (PbrR) and its operator promoter (PbrO/P) derived from plasmid pMOL30 (240 kb) of Ralstonia metallidurans CH34 (refs 12 and 13).