A Transposon Screen for Detecting Naphthenic Acids

This year, our team wanted to identify a novel responsive element capable of detecting and quantifying naphthenic acids (NAs) in solution. While numerous studies have begun to identify species of bacteria capable of surviving and sensing NAs, the degradation pathways have not yet been fully characterized. Therefore, we needed to design and implement novel approaches to efficiently isolate the genetic elements that detect and potentially lead to the breakdown naphthenic acids.