Osmotic Biosensors. How to Use a Characean Internode for Measuring the Alcohol Content of Beer

• Published in: Botanica Acta
• Main Authors: Rüdinger, M., Hierling, P., Steudle, E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1992
• Subjects: Nitella flexilis
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1438-8677.1992.tb00260.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1438-8677.1992.tb00260.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1438-8677.1992.tb00260.x

Abstract Isolated internodes of Chara corallina and Nitella flexilis have been used to determine the concentration of one passively permeating solute in the presence of non‐permeating solutes. The technique was based on the fact that the shape of the peaks of the biphasic responses of cell turgor (as measured in a conventional way using the cell pressure probe) depended on the concentration and composition of the solution and on the permeability and reflection coefficients of the solutes. Peak sizes were proportional to the concentration of the permeating solute applied to the cell. Thus, using the selective properties of the cell membrane as the sensing element and changes of turgor pressure as the physical signal, plant cells have been used as a new type of biosensor based on osmotic principles. Upon applying osmotic solutions, the responses of cell turgor (P) exactly followed the P(t) curves predicted from the theory based on the linear force/flow relations of irreversible thermodynamics. The complete agreement between theory and experiment was demonstrated by comparing measured curves with those obtained by either numerically solving the differential equations for volume (water) and solute flow or by using an explicit solution of the equations. The explicit solution neglected the solvent drag which was shown to be negligible to a very good approximation. Different kinds of local beers (regular and de‐alcoholized) were used as test solutions to apply the system for measuring concentrations of ethanol. The results showed a very good agreement between alcohol concentrations measured by the sensor technique and those obtained from conventional techniques (enzymatic determination using alcohol dehydrogenase or from measurement of the density and refraction index of beer). However, with beer as the test solution, the characean internodes did show irreversible changes of the transport properties of the membranes leading to a shift in the responses when cells were treated for longer than 1 h with diluted beer. The ...