IQUIBICEN   23947
INSTITUTO DE QUIMICA BIOLOGICA DE LA FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS EXACTAS Y NATURALES
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Development of a microbial fuel cell-based sensor for the detection of extraterrestrial photosynthetic life
Autor/es:
ALBERT SAAVEDRA; FEDERICO FIGUEREDO; EDUARDO CORTÓN
Lugar:
Lima
Reunión:
Congreso; Primer Congreso Latinoamericano de Astrobiología; 2016
Institución organizadora:
Sociedad Científica de Astrobiología, Mars Society, Space Generation Advisory Council y Pontificia Universidad Católica
Resumen:
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are bio electrochemical systems that harvest electrons from redox reactions involved in the metabolisms of living microorganisms. The detection of redox processes coupled to the electric circuit of the MFC allows the generation of an electric current that can be measured and quantified. Using this principle we demonstrated that MFCs-based sensors can detect metabolically active microorganisms. In previous works, MFC-based sensors were developed for the detection of heterotrophic and photosynthetic metabolisms in short term experiments with samples containing only one species of microorganisms. However, it is unknown how a MFC-based sensor can behave in long term experiments with a mixed microorganisms samples. This study is based on the evaluation of two main factors: 1) Variations in the number of microbial cells along the experiments (cells growing inside the MFCs-based sensor). 2) The detection of metabolisms in samples with more than one species of microorganisms. Our results show that the sensor can detect photosynthetic metabolisms under these conditions. In addition, the bio electrochemical response of the MFC-based sensor can vary according to the cell number and the sample to be tested. These results are discussed in the general context of the bio electrochemistry of MFCs.