SCIENCE REPORTER, FEBRUARY 2012

28
SUDHAUNSHU PUROHIT
WATER is lifes mater and matrix, mother
and medi um sai d the 1937 Nobel
Laureate Hungari an bi ochemi st Al bert
Szent-Gyorgyi. It is indeed the element that
creates and sustains life not only on land
but al so under the dark unknowns of
ocean depths. Indeed, the quest for
water has taken man not onl y to the
extremes of earth but now also to the lands
beyond our planet. Indias Chandrayaan I
mi ssi on wi th the ai d of NASA s Moon
Mineralogy Mapper (M
3
) in 2008 did yield
cri ti cal data that provi ded i rrefutabl e
evidence of the presence of water on the
moon.
Today as we cross the first decade of
the 21
st
century, Indi as economy has
soared at the rate of 8% every year for
the last five years and is projected to be
the second largest economy in the world
by 2050. The growth has been fuelled by
the innovations in the service sectors such
as in the Information technology Industry.
However, the backbone of I ndi a s
economy is still agriculture which accounts
for 52% of total employment and nearly
15% of Indias gross domestic product
(GDP).
Given the dependence of such a
large portion of Indias GDP and labour on
the four-month monsoon season, water
storage and conservation is of paramount
importance for our economy as well as
the health of the nation. The government
spends bi l l i ons of dol l ars for water
treatment and storage and distribution
i nfrastructure to quench the needs of
millions across the nation. Ironically, this
most i mportant resource i s wasted
everyday due to negligence and lack of
awareness of the efforts and costs
required by the government to provide
water so economically for everyone.
In recent times, it has become even
more important to closely guard the quality
of water since it is one of the primary causes
of the spread of i nfecti ous di seases.
Furthermore, the threat of poisoning of our
vast water resources by anti -soci al
elements and terrorists has been a major
concern of the admi ni strati on. The
devel opment of new methods and
devi ces for moni tori ng the qual i ty of
potable water therefore assumes great
importance.
Concerns
One of the most common forms of water
contamination is arsenic pollution. Arsenic
poisoning is one of the major concerns
that has worried scientists for quite some
time. It has been nearly two decades since
the Bangladesh tube well arsenic crisis. An
effi ci ent tool to moni tor such toxi c
chemicals still eludes us. Large populations
i n vari ous parts of the worl d are usi ng
potable water contaminated with arsenic
concentrati ons much hi gher than the
permi ssi bl e l evel s (for most European
countries and the United States, 10 g/L;
elsewhere, 50 g/L).
Arsenic, along with fluorine, is now
recogni zed by the Worl d Heal th
Organization (WHO) as the most serious
inorganic contaminant in drinking water.
Systemic and chronic exposure to arsenic
is known to lead to serious disorders, such
as vascular diseases (Blackfoot disease
and hypertension) and irritations of the skin
and mucous membranes, as wel l as
dermati ti s, keratosi s, and mel anosi s.
Inorganic arsenic is a human carcinogen.
Hence, there i s a need for anal yti cal
methods able to detect arsenic at very
low concentrations, specifically, rapidly,
and on the field.
Traditionally, various chemical and
i nstrumental methods such as
chromatographi c and spectroscopi c
methods that can provi de el emental
analysis of all the contaminants in water
have been widely used. However, these
methods are expensive, time consuming,
labour intensive and require software and
skilled analysis. These drawbacks have
limited their use to government agencies
or developed countries. There is an urgent
need of a diagnostic test that is cheap,
portable easy-to-use and that enables
effi ci ent and fast detecti on of toxi c
substances in tube wells, well water, lakes
and other water sources i n rural
communities.
Advances in Detection
Technology
So far, such technology was very difficult
to come by. However, recentl y,
researchers from University of Kentucky,
USA, have developed a new method using
living bacteria that glow with fluorescent
light in the presence of arsenic. The path-
breaking research done by Dr. Amol Date,
a native of Mumbai, India, was published
i n top sci enti fi c j ournal s (Anal yti cal
Chemistry and Analytical and Bioanalytical
Chemistry) in 2007 and 2010 and has
received widespread attention since then.
Whats
in Your
Water?
This new technology is
not only extremely
effective in detection but
also inexpensive, easy-
to-use and store.
S
h
o
r
t

F
e
a
t
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r
e
SCIENCE REPORTER, FEBRUARY 2012
29
The geneti cal l y engi neer ed
bacteri um serves as a bi osensor for
arsenic in water and is programmed to
glow bright yellow in colour only when it is
i n the presence of arseni c-contai ni ng
water . The gl ow can enabl e even a
layman to confirm the presence of toxins
in water. Additionally, the bacteria can be
converted to spores and stored and
packaged for long periods of time without
any special storage requirements.
Gram-posi ti ve bacteri um (Baci l l us
subtillis) used in this research has been
extensively studied as a model prokaryotic
system. It is not regarded as a pathogen
and is used in various applications such as
a probiotic for both human and animal
consumption. One unique feature of this
bacter i um i s that i t pr oduces an
endospore when starved of nutrients, as
part of its developmental life cycle. The
mature spore released from the mother
cel l can sur vi ve i n a metabol i cal l y
dormant state for hundreds, i f not
thousands of year s wi thout l osi ng i ts
viability. It has been claimed that one in
100,000 spores can survi ve a bri ef
exposure to 3,000C flame and can also
tolerate liquid helium at -269C. Under
favor abl e condi ti ons, spor es can
germi nate and transform back i nto
bacterial cells and resume their normal
metabolic activities.
Thi s new technol ogy i s not onl y
extremely effective in detection but also
inexpensive, easy-to-use and store. The
new technology has also been shown to
be integrated in chip-like devices by Dr.
Date. The main impact of this work is that
it has now jump-started the field of on-site
anal ysi s of envi ronmental sampl es.
Features such as integration of sensors into
chips and ease-of-use, along with the low-
cost of the technology have opened the
doors to its use in developing countries and
rural areas.
The implications of this research are
not l i mi ted onl y to envi r onmental
detection but have also been shown to
be useful i n cl i ni cal appl i cati ons.
Specifically, the sensors were employed
to detect micromolar amounts of zinc in
blood samples of healthy subjects. This is
of particular importance since zinc has
been shown to be an influencing factor in
Alzheimers disease. The diagnostics chips
envisioned by Dr. Date will be revolutionary
to the detection field in medicine. This
research was also recently highlighted by
the US magazi ne Popul ar Sci ence i n
February 2010 as one of the Top 25
technol ogi es that wi l l tr ansfor m our
crumbling infrastructure.
As we move ahead in the twenty-first
century, such i nnovati ons and
technol ogi es br i ng the pr omi se of
improvement in the health of millions of
people. Many developing countries such
as I ndi a ther efor e need to i nvest i n
research and devel opment of
technologies that will facilitate the surge
in growth and prosperity of the country.
Mr Sudhaunshu Purohit is a PhD student at
University of Missouri, Kansas city. He obtained
Masters Degree in Chemistry from University of
Kentucky, USA in 2010 and University of Mumbai,
India in 2008. Address: 06, 1st floor, Ambar
Apartments, Maharana Pratap Marg, Pardeshi Ali,
Panvel, Maharashtra-410206
Arsenic, along with fluorine, is now recognized by the
World Health Organization (WHO) as the most serious
inorganic contaminant in drinking
water.
Systemic and chronic
exposure to arsenic is
known to lead to serious
disorders, such as
vascular diseases
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