Characterization Methods of a Whole-Cell Bioluminescent Biosensor

A whole-cell bioluminescent biosensor dynamics based on genetically engineered Escherichia coli bacteria carrying a promoter-reporter fusion is often determined by a series of chemical reactions such as gene expression and reactions involving protein concentrations at nanomolar volume. In this paper, we derive an anayltical model of a whole-cell bioluminescent biosensor based on the Michaelis-Menten kinetics of simple enzymatic reactions. The proposed model is characterized by three measurable set of parameters: the biosensor effective rate constant, the total number of the emitted photons and the biosensor reaction order. We get a good agreement between the simulation results of the model and the measured light signal, correlating the input signal (toxin concentration) and the output signal (the bioluminescent light). The model is tested and verified for various prompters (recA, KatG, and micF). This model is useful in the design process of bio-electronic circuits.