Antibiotics help farm animals to grow big and healthy, as well as fight with various health problems. Though, no one likes to eat meat with antibiotics, thus Russian scientists suggest a new technique for detecting antibiotics in meat and milk.

      So-called lux-biosensors are genetic constructs, or cells, which contain genes of Escherichia coli bacterium, coding repressing proteins, responsible for reaction on antibiotic presence, as well as genes of green fluorescent protein and fluorescent bacteria. When test substance contains antibiotics, repressing proteins react with them, thus making the whole construct glow. Each repressing protein reacts with one and only antibiotic, thus making the technique highly specific. Light intensity correlates with the concentration of an antibiotic in the test substance, allowing scientists to estimate its concentration.

      Researchers created lux-sensors for groups of tetracycline and beta-lactam antibiotics, as well as, quinolones and aminoglycoside antibiotics. They plan to expand the range of detected antibiotics to nisin, erythromycin, carbomycin and oleandomycin in various food products.