Mussel adhesive protein-based whole cell array biosensor for detection of organophosphorus compounds

A whole cell array biosensor for the efficient detection of neurotoxic organophosphate compounds (OPs) was developed through the immobilization of recombinant Escherichia coli cells containing periplasmic-expressing organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH) onto the surface of a 96-well microplate using mussel adhesive protein (MAP) as a microbial cell-immobilizing linker. Both the paraoxon-hydrolyzing activity and fluorescence microscopy analyses demonstrated that the use of MAP in a whole cell biosensor increased the cell-immobilizing efficiency and enhanced the stability of immobilized cells compared to a simple physical adsorption-based whole cell system. Scanning electron microscopic analyses also showed that the E. coli cells were effectively immobilized on the MAP-coated surface without any pretreatment steps. The whole cell array biosensor system, prepared using optimal MAP coating (50μg/cm²) and cell loading (4OD₆₀₀), detected paraoxon levels as low as 5μM with high reproducibility, and its quantitative detection range was ~5-320μM. The MAP-based whole cell array biosensor showed a good long-term stability for 28 day with 80% retained activity and a reusability of up to 20 times. In addition, paraoxon in tap water was also successfully detected without a reduction in sensitivity. Our results indicate that the proposed MAP-based whole cell array system could be used as a potential platform for a stable and reusable whole cell biosensor.