Amperometric biosensors based on recombinant laccases for phenols determination

Graphite (GE) or printed graphite electrode (PGE) based biosensors containing recombinant fungal laccase Polyporus pinsitus (rPpL), and Myceliophthora thermophila (rMtL) were developed. The enzymes were immobilized using bovine serum albumin and glutaraldehyde. At pH 5.5 and - 0.1 V, the calibration graphs of GE based biosensors were hyperbolic if pyrocatechol was used. The concentration of substrate that results in 50% of steady-state response (EC50) was 0.7 mM and sensitivity (S) was 3.8 mA/M. The sensitivity increased up to 4 A/M if larger amount of rPpL was used. The sensitivity of biosensors changed little during 9 days of exploitation, but decreased at longer time. The PGE based biosensors were mounted into the flow-through cell and calibrated under kinetic regime. EC50 of the biosensors containing rPpL varied from 0.6 to 4.0 mM and sensitivity varied from 0.11 to 1.9 mA/M. The response of biosensor containing thermostable laccase rMtL was less, but response saturated at larger pyrocatechol concentration. The sensitivity changed little during 6 days. Both type of biosensors responded also to 1-naphthol, o-phenylenediamine, guaiacol, o-anizidine, benzidine. The experiments demonstrate recombinant laccases application to biosensor engineering and their use to phenol and related compound determination under steady-state and flow-through regimes. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.