Acute heavy metal toxicity test based on bacteria-hydrogel

Abstract Toxicity test sensor for heavy metal ions is developed in this work. It founds that toxic heavy metal ions leads both bacterial enzymatic activity and viability. Moreover, the hydrogel encapsulation of bacteria was performed to achieve two purposes: (1) to enhance the viability/activity of the biological sensing agent and thus prolong the shelf life of biosensors based on bacteria; and (2) to further improve the portability of the bioassay system and simplify the bioassay operation. The developed bioassay demonstrates potentials in comprehensive toxicity test of real water samples containing multiplex heavy metal ions. This work paves the way for on-site biotoxicity test based on microorganisms and provides clues for the development of long-term validity biosensors.