Algae-derived biosensor materials and their applications

Biosensors operate through the detection of specific target(s) with subsequent conversions of the obtained signals into proportional signals for further analysis. A fully functional biosensor is composed of a recognition element(s), transducers (electrochemical, optical calorimetric, and mass change), and an electronic system (including a signal amplifier, processor, and data display). Due to the biological importance of algae, designing of biosensors using algal cells has emerged to address the limitations of the current bioanalytical methods in terms of sensitivity, throughput, ease-of-use, and miniaturization. In these systems, environmental toxic compounds could be detected through monitoring the bioelectrochemical signals of the algal cells as the biosensing elements. Algae-based biosensors are intriguing tools for detecting analytes of agroenvironmental and security significance in a sensitive, long-term, and combinatorial way; hence, several algal biosensors have been developed over the past decade to detect heavy metals, pesticides, and volatile organic compounds providing high sensitivity, ease of genetic manipulation, sustainability, and flexibility for incorporation into microfluidics and multiplexing equipment. Thus, this chapter outlines the various algae biomaterials, their applications, and promising evolution for the development of biosensors that are potent to be employed in the environmental and agricultural sciences domains.