Das Projekt "Schnelle Feststellung hochmolekularer Stoffe in See- und Abwasser in subtropischen und tropischen Gebieten auf der Grundlage enzymatischer Hydrolyse in Kombination mit einem neuen Arxula-BSB-Sensorsystem" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Institut für Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung (IPK) durchgeführt. Improving the environment of subtropical and tropical countries through effective monitoring methods with biosensors developed by a multidisciplinary team is the ultimate goal of this exchange research program. Monitoring the water pollution is the specific subject of concern in this project: we will focus on the fast detection of high molecular substances in sea water directly on-site. Biosensors are ideal devices for environmental checking and monitoring. In the last two years, the groups of the Hong Kong Project Coordinator Prof. R. Renneberg and of the German Project Coordinator PD Dr. habil. G. Kunze jointly developed a microbial Biochemical Oxygen Demand sensor based on the salt-tolerant yeast Arxula adeninivorans especially for coastal and island regions like Hong Kong, where wastewater has different degrees of salinity. The correlation between Arxula sensor BOD and BOD5 for both domestic wastewater as well as industrial wastewater with different salinities was very good. However, high-molecular substances (e.g., starch, cellulose, and proteins) have caused problems for the newly developed Arxula BOD sensor. The goal of this project is the development of a fast and easy-to-handle microbial sensor system for the detection of high-molecular substances in ea- and wastewater in subtropical and tropical regions based on enzymatic hydrolysis combined with the new Arxula BOD sensor system. This sensor will allow to take measurements in wastewater from the food industry (starch, proteins) and from farms (cellulose).