ABSTRACT
Bacteria monitoring is essential for many industrial manufacturing processes, particularly those involving in food, biopharmaceuticals, and semiconductor production. Firefly luciferase ATP luminescence assay is a rapid and simple bacteria detection method. However, the detection limit of this assay for Escherichia coli is approximately 10(4) colony-forming units (CFU), which is insufficient for many applications. This study aims to improve the assay sensitivity by simultaneous conversion of PP(i) and AMP, two products of the luciferase reaction, back to ATP to form two chain-reaction loops. Because each consumed ATP continuously produces two new ATP molecules, this approach can achieve exponential amplification of ATP. Two consecutive enzyme reactions were employed to regenerate AMP into ATP: adenylate kinase converting AMP into ADP using UTP as the energy source, and acetate kinase catalyzing acetyl phosphate and ADP into ATP. The PP(i)-recycling loop was completed using ATP sulfurylase and adenosine 5' phosphosulfate. The modification maintains good quantification linearity in the ATP luminescence assay and greatly increases its bacteria detection sensitivity. This improved method can detect bacteria concentrations of fewer than 10 CFU. This exponential ATP amplification assay will benefit bacteria monitoring in public health and manufacturing processes that require high-quality water.
Subject(s)
Adenosine Monophosphate/metabolism , Adenosine Triphosphate/metabolism , Bacteria/isolation & purification , Diphosphates/metabolism , Adenosine Monophosphate/chemistry , Adenosine Phosphosulfate/chemistry , Adenosine Phosphosulfate/metabolism , Adenosine Triphosphate/chemistry , Bacillus cereus/metabolism , Colony Count, Microbial , Diphosphates/chemistry , Luminescence , Luminescent Measurements/methods , Pseudomonas aeruginosa/metabolism , Sensitivity and Specificity , Sulfate Adenylyltransferase/chemistry , Sulfate Adenylyltransferase/metabolismABSTRACT
The manufacturing processes of many electronic and medical products demand the use of high-quality water. Hence the water supply systems for these processes are required to be examined regularly for the presence of microorganisms and microbial biofilms. Among commonly used bacteria detection approaches, the ATP luminescence assay is a rapid, sensitive, and easy to perform method. The aim of this study is to investigate whether ATP regeneration from inorganic pyrophosphate, a product of the ATP luminescence assay, can stabilize the bioluminescence signals in ATP detection. ADPglc pyrophosphorylase (AGPPase), which catalyzes the synthesis of ATP from PP(i) in the presence of ADPglc, was selected because the system yields much lower luminescence background than the commercially available ATP sulfurylase/adenosine 5'-phosphosulfate (APS) system which was broadly used in pyrosequencing technology. The AGPPase-based assay could be used to measure both PP(i) and ATP quantitatively and shows 1.5- to 4.0-fold slight increases in a 10-min assay. The method could also be used to stabilize the luminescence signals in detection of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Bacillus cereus in either broth or biofilm. These findings suggest that the AGPPase-based ATP regeneration system will find many practical applications such as detection of bacterial biofilm in water pipelines.
