Indigoidine and deoxyviolacein co-pigmentation in a single bacterial cell enables visual discrimination of Pb(ii) and Hg(ii) in environmental water matrices
Zongjie Ma, Yan Guo, Wenjun Luo, Keyan Wei, Zhaobo Hu, Jiajun Huang, Yuting Chen, Chang-ye Hui · 2026
Read Indigoidine and deoxyviolacein co-pigmentation in a single bacterial cell enables visual discrimination of Pb(ii) and Hg(ii) in environmental water matrices by Zongjie Ma, Yan Guo, Wenjun Luo, Keyan Wei, Zhaobo Hu, Jiajun Huang, Yuting Chen, Chang-ye Hui (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13679184.txt.
Description
Lead and mercury often pollute water together, but lab tests for them are costly and slow. Zongjie Ma and seven co-authors engineered a bacterium in a 2026 study that answers with color instead. One metal switch makes a blue pigment, and the other makes a purple one, both inside a single cell. The colors can be read by eye or with simple light measurements.
The sensor detected lead and mercury at extremely low levels, near safety thresholds, and ignored other metals. Spiked river and sea water samples still gave clean dose responses. The authors pitch the cheap, plate-based test for routine screening and spill emergencies.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Zongjie Ma, Yan Guo, Wenjun Luo, Keyan Wei, Zhaobo Hu, Jiajun Huang, Yuting Chen, Chang-ye Hui |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 46 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |