A Biosensor Approach for DNA Sequences Detection in Non‐amplified Genomic DNA

Abstract

A biosensor approach using optical transduction based on surface plasmon resonance is adopted for the direct detection of target sequences in genomic DNA of several origins. In particular, the sensor was applied to three different sequences, representative of different living organisms from plant to human and differing in terms of copies in the relative genome.

The sample pretreatment consisted in a fragmentation with restriction enzymes, followed by an optimized denaturation step. The biosensor resulted specific both with oligonucleotides and with genomic non‐amplified DNA. The sensor could represent an alternative method to traditional biomolecular techniques for the identification of DNA sequences in digested DNA, bypassing the amplification step.

Keywords:

• Genomic DNA
• biosensor
• SPR
• hybridization

Authors would like to thank Dr. Ronghui Wang for performing some preliminary experiments leading to the further development of this work. Financial support by Ministero della Salute and ISPELS with the project “Metodi rapidi ed innovativi per l'analisi ed il controllo di OGM ed alimenti contenenti o prodotti a partire da OGM” is also acknowledged.