A  CHEMOSENSOR  BASED  ON  A  SELF-ORGANIZED
IMPERFECT  FUNGUS  COLONY
("ELECTRONIC  MOUTH")

A. L. Bulyanitsa

                 Institute for Analytical Instrumentation RAS. Saint-Petersburg

  A concept of a chemosensory analyzer based on a sensitive element of natural origin, an imperfect mycelial fungus colony (IMEC) is offered. A fungal cell can be treated as a set of weakly selective sensors responding to environmental composition, temperature, illumination. Thus one can see here a certain similarity to multisensors like "electronic nose" and "electronic tongue". But the self-organization of IMEC implies consumption of the substrate and producing metabolites into the environment. The latter suggests the name "electronic mouth" for such a chemosensor.