The modern world has seen exposure of bacterial communities to toxic metals at selective levels. This manifests itself both intentionally, through medicines and un-intentionally through waste streams. There is growing concern that selective exposure to metals may be linked to microbial resistance to antibiotics. For a microbe to become resistant to a specific metal it must first come in contact with it. The transition metal copper has the ability to enter bacterial cells without need for a copper specific uptake mechanism. Copper is commonly used as an antimicrobial in the healthcare industry, consumer products and as a growth promoter of livestock in the agricultural sector. Here we report a study into the uptake of different organic and inorganic sources of copper. A whole-cell bacterial biosensor was developed to quantify the specific uptake of copper from various sources. Furthermore, a cell-free sensor was utilized to investigate the response to copper sources when uptake is eliminated as a factor. The data within suggest inorganic copper to have greatly reduced uptake compared to organic sources and that there is significant difference between copper oxides, Cu₂O and CuO.

中文翻译：

---

开发用于检测和区分有机和无机形式的铜的全细胞和无细胞生物传感器

现代世界已经看到细菌群落暴露于选择性水平的有毒金属。这既通过药物有意地表现出来，也通过废物流无意地表现出来。人们越来越担心选择性接触金属可能与微生物对抗生素的耐药性有关。要使微生物对特定金属产生抗性，它必须首先与它接触。过渡金属铜具有进入细菌细胞的能力，而无需特定的铜吸收机制。铜通常在医疗保健行业、消费品中用作抗菌剂，并在农业部门用作牲畜的生长促进剂。在这里，我们报告了一项关于铜的不同有机和无机来源的吸收的研究。开发了一种全细胞细菌生物传感器来量化各种来源的铜的具体吸收。此外，当吸收作为一个因素被排除时，无细胞传感器被用来研究对铜源的响应。其中的数据表明，与有机来源相比，无机铜的吸收量大大降低，并且铜氧化物、Cu 之间存在显着差异₂ O 和 CuO。