Use of Escherichia coli k-12 strain with GFP reporter gene for screening of cefuroxime and metronidazole residues in surface water

Abstract

Antibiotic residues are constantly detected in environmental waters at relatively low concentrations. They can modulate the biological stability of ecosystems after entering the environment, therefore robust and reliable methods for determining their residues in environmental samples are required. In this work, Escherichia coli K-12 GFP-based bacterial biosensors strain was used to detect cyto- and genotoxic activity of cefuroxime and metronidazole at concentration of 500, 1000, 2000, 3000 and 5000 μg/ml. Experimental data indicated that metronidazole, at higher concentrations of 3000 and 5000 μg/ml showed stronger cyto- and genotoxix activity than cefuroxime to bacteria cells. Incubation of bacteria cells with surface water with both drugs modulated gfp gene expression. E. coli K-12 strain with genetic fusion of recA promoter and gfp reporter gene was a good model organism for screening cyto- and genotoxic effect of cefuroxime and metronidazole in applied in this experiment concentrations of these drugs.