Chromogenic Escherichia coli reporter strain for screening DNA damaging agents.

The presence of pollutants in soil and water has given rise to diverse analytical and biological approaches to detect and measure contaminants in the environment. Using bacterial cells as reporter strains represents an advantage for detecting pollutants present in soil or water samples. Here, an Escherichia coli reporter strain expressing a chromoprotein capable of interacting with soil or water samples and responding to DNA damaging compounds is validated.

Development of an oxidative stress sensor in live bacteria using the optimized HyPer2 protein.

Oxidative stress is a key regulator in many cellular processes but also an important burden for living organisms. The source of oxidative damage usually is difficult to measure and assess with analytical tools or chemical indicators. One major limitation is to discriminate the presence of secondary oxidant molecules derived from the cellular metabolism after exposure to the oxidant or the scavenging capacity of reactive oxygen species by cells.

Replacing Standard Reporters from Molecular Cloning Plasmids with Chromoproteins for Positive Clone Selection.

Cloning and expression plasmids are the workhorses of modern molecular biology. Despite the pathway paved by synthetic biology, laboratories around the globe still relay on standard cloning techniques using plasmids with reporter proteins for positive clone selection, such as β-galactosidase alpha peptide complementation for blue/white screening or , which encodes for a toxic DNA gyrase. These reporters, when interrupted, serve as a positive clone detection system.