A SMALL VOLUME, HIGHLY SENSITIVE METHOD FOR DETECTING ENVIRONMENTAL INSULTS

摘要

Subtle changes in environmental stress can now be detected and measured at sublethal levels as a generic response to environmental stress. The present invention provides an improved method to detect changes in the environmental stress level in very small volumes to permit very high throughput of analyses. The stress change is indicated as a change in the luminescence output of a genetically engineered microorganism. In the present invention, the luminescence gene complex is under the control of a stress inducible promoter. The volumes contemplated range from about 0.5 uL to about 10 mL of media in which the detector organism is suspended.