Development and initial testing of a novel slime mould biosensor

A plurality of whole cell biosensors have been developed using many different cell types. Biosensors incorporate biomolecular components or whole cells to facilitate specific analyte interaction; research documented here presents a novel whole cell biosensor based on the slime mould Physarum polycephalum (PP). The electrical response of PP when exposed to multiple chemicals are measured and quantified in terms of amplitude and frequency response. The PP biosensor is capable of detecting the tested chemicals and individually identifying a large number in terms of a specific shift in either oscillation frequency or amplitude. However, it does exhibit a sensitivity to environmental changes such as light level and temperature which may interfere with the detection of the target analyte but could also be used for wider sensing applications. It is proposed that this novel biosensor is capable of detecting many organic chemicals beyond those presented in this work and that the biosensor may be used for environmental monitoring and toxicity evaluation.