In this study, we designed and applied molecular biosensors for heavy metals, zinc and copper, for use in bioremediation strategies. Bacteria utilize two component systems to sense changes in the environment by multiple signal components including heavy metals and control gene expression in response to changes in signal molecules. zraP and cusC promoters were selected from a genetic circuit of the ZraSR and CusSR two-component system and were fused to a dual-labeling reporter protein as an interactive biological component for zinc and copper to generate a signal from the constructed biosensor. The biosensor efficiently senses zinc and copper with a calculated detection limit of 16 mu M and 26 mu M, respectively, and was shown to be a sensitive and effective heavy metal monitoring bacterial system. To extend the application of the bacterial biosensor, we assembled a bioadsorption system that can trigger bacteria to sense and adsorb 13 +/- 0.3 mg/L of zinc and 11.4 +/- 0.42 mg/L of copper per gram of dry cell weight with induction at a concentration of 100 mg/L of the respective metal ion. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.