Nitrate sensor

1. A biosensor method for detecting nitrate in a test specimen; said method comprising the steps of:

exposing a fluorescence emitter to the test specimen;

wherein said emitter consists of the Molybdenum-Molybdopterin (Mo-MPT) domain of nitrate reductase; and

measuring any decrease in fluorescence of the emitter arising from the exposing step.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:

calculating a quantity of nitrate in the test specimen from the measured decrease in fluorescence.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein:

the nitrate quantity is proportional to the measured decrease.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein:

the nitrate quenches the fluorescence.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the nitrate quenches the fluorescence.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

said emitter is obtained by cleaving the Mo-MPT domain of said nitrate reductase and isolating said cleaved domain.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein:

the step of isolating the Mo-MPT domain occurs before said exposing step.

8. A biosensor method for detecting nitrate in a test specimen comprising the steps of:

exposing a fluorescence emitter to a test specimen;

measuring any decrease in fluorescence of the emitter arising from the exposing step;

wherein the fluorescence emitter consists of the isolated Molybdenum-Molybdopterin (Mo-MPT) domain of nitrate reductase; and

wherein said Mo-MPT domain is obtained by cleaving the Mo-MPT domain of the nitrate reductase to obtain a mixture of the cleaved Mo-MPT domain and nitrate reductase lacking the Mo-MPT domain, and then filtering the mixture to isolate the Mo-MPT domain.

9. A biosensor method for detecting nitrate in a test specimen comprising the steps of:

exposing a fluorescence emitter to a test specimen;

measuring a decrease in fluorescence of the emitter arising from the exposing step;

wherein the fluorescence emitter consists of the isolated Molybdenum-Molybdopterin (Mo-MPT) domain of nitrate reductase; and

wherein said Mo-MPT domain is obtained by subcloning the Mo-MPT gene domain.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the gene subcloning comprises the steps of:

inserting a cloned Mo-MPt domain into bacterial expression vectors to produce clone-inserted vectors;

screening said clone-inserted vectors for the presence of the Mo-MPT domain clone;

identifying vectors screening positive for the Mo-MPT domain clone from the vectors screening positive for the Mo-MPT domain.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the gene subcloning further comprises the steps of, before the inserting step:

cleaving the Mo-MPt domain of the nitrate reductase; and

amplifying the Mo-MPT domain, wherein the amplifying comprises using a polymerase chain reaction and subcloning of the Mo-MPT domain.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the measuring step has a nitrate detection sensitivity on the order of one hundred parts per million, or better.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the measuring step has a nitrate detection sensitivity on the order of ten parts per million, or better.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the measuring step has a nitrate detection sensitivity on the order of one part per billion, or better.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the exposing step comprises:

immersing the emitter in the specimen.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of, before the exposing step:

disposing the emitter on a structural support.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein:

the structural support comprises a wall of a chamber, room, or passageway.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the structural support is selected from the group consisting of

a gel matrix, a microsolution, an electrode, a microchip, a fiber-optic cable, and a solid particle.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:

substantially continuously monitoring the specimen.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the test specimen is selected from the group consisting of

natural fresh, marine and estuarine waters, municipal and rural drinking water sources, aqueous solutions associated with wastewater treatment facilities, aqueous solutions associated with industrial process streams, pharmaceuticals, nutritional supplements, foodstuffs, beverages, body fluids, chemicals, water specimens, biologicals, vapors, and derivatives thereof.

21. A biosensor method for detecting nitrate in a test specimen comprising the steps of:

obtaining a fluorescence emitter from nitrate reductase, said obtaining step comprising isolating the domain consisting of the Mo-MPT domain of nitrate reductase in order to remove confounding fluorescence signals potentially caused by heme or FAD domains;

exposing the obtained fluorescence emitter to said test specimen; and

measuring any decrease in fluorescence of said fluorescence emitter arising from said exposing step.