Microbial Biosensors for Environmental Quality Monitoring: Recent Advances and Future Outlook

The environment is constantly polluted by xenobiotics emitted by anthropogenic activities, which puts ecosystem integrity at risk. Thus, monitoring and research on the harmful consequences of xenobiotics is of great importance. For its monitoring, rapid, consistent, cost-effective, and compact equipment is required. Microbial living cells have developed the ability to perceive a variety of environmental cues, providing a unique platform for the development of biosensing devices. A biosensor is an analytical tool with a transducer that is biologically integrated and produces a quantifiable signal that indicates the concentration of an analyte. Microbial-derived biosensors have the potential to be used in a variety of detection domains because of their usability, affordability, compatibility, portability, and simplicity in genetic alteration. Owing to their distinct structural and functional characteristics, they are ideal for detecting and monitoring a wide range of environmental contaminants. This chapter examines current trends and advancements in microbial-derived biosensors for monitoring environmental pollutants. A special emphasis is also placed on the development of genetically altered microbial biosensors and their use in the monitoring of environmental contaminants. Furthermore, the key difficulties and prospective results will be systematically addressed to highlight the use of microbial biosensors.