Dual-functional SERRS and fluorescent aptamer sensor for abscisic acid detection via charged gold nanorods

Emerging trends in nucleic acid and peptide aptamers in plant science research

MAIN CONCLUSION

Aptamer technology has significantly advanced the field of plant research, emerging as a tool for enhancing agricultural productivity, plant growth, and environmental monitoring. Aptamers are short nucleotide or amino acid sequences that can bind to a range of target molecules with high affinity and selectivity. In recent years, these affinity molecules have piqued the interest of researchers across various scientific fields, including pharmaceuticals, analytical chemistry, and plant science. Advancements in aptamer technology have significantly broadened the horizons of plant science, particularly in the areas of plant analyte detection, pathogen targeting, and protein function analysis. Despite the use of various other bioassays and molecular techniques for plant analyte detection, the small size, chemical stability, and cost-effective synthesis of aptamers make them invaluable tools for unravelling the complexities of plant cells. Here, we discuss the progress in the development of nucleic acid and peptide aptamers and summarize their applications in plant biotechnology. The principles and signalling methods of various aptamer-based biosensors and their prospects as biotechnological tools for functional genomic studies, pathogen resistance, and bioimaging are discussed. Finally, the present challenges and future perspectives of aptamer-based technology in plant research are also summarized.

Ultra-Sensitive Abscisic Acid Detection Using Gold and 4-Mercaptopyridine Perovskite-Engineered Robust Nanofibers (GLAMPER-NFs) under Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

This study explores the development and application of gold and 4-mercaptopyridine (MPY) perovskite-engineered robust nanofibers (GLAMPER-NFs) for the ultrasensitive detection of Abscisic acid (ABA) under Raman spectroscopy, a crucial plant hormone. The GLAMPER-NFs composite material, consisting of MAPbCl3 nanofibers integrated with MPY-coated gold nanostructures, demonstrates exceptional performance in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based sensing. The study elucidates the material structure and properties through comprehensive characterization using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-vis spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared, and Raman spectroscopy. The SEM analysis reveals uniform nanofibers with diameter of 107.8 ± 3.06 nm, while spectroscopic studies confirm the successful synthesis and integration of the composite components. The SERS-based detection of ABA showcases remarkable sensitivity, with a linear detection range (R2 = 0.9957) spanning 7 orders of magnitude (10-14-10-7 M) and presented a limit of detection of 10-11 and enhancement factor of 1.08 × 107. This surpasses the performance of existing sensing platforms, demonstrating clear spectral responses even at femtomolar concentrations. The synergistic effects of the perovskite structure, plasmonic gold nanoparticles, and MPY linking molecules contributed exceptional sensing capabilities to the GLAMPER-NFs material. Fluorescence studies further corroborate the sensitivity and provide insights into the photophysical interactions between ABA and the composite material. This research advances the understanding of perovskite-based hybrid materials and presents a promising GLAMPER-NFs as SERS substrate for ultrasensitive plant hormone detection, with potential applications in agricultural monitoring and plant science research.

Functionalized Single Crystal Perovskite Materials for SERS and Their Potential Detection Applications

Recent advances in detection and diagnostic tools have improved understanding and identification of plant physiological and biochemical processes. Effective and safe Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) can find objects quickly and accurately. Raman enhancement amplifies the signal by 1014-1015 to accurately quantify plant metabolites at the molecular level. This paper shows how to use functionalized perovskite substrates for SERS. These perovskite substrates have lots of surface area, intense Raman scattering, and high sensitivity and specificity. These properties eliminate sample matrix component interference. This study identified research gaps on perovskite substrates' effectiveness, precision, and efficiency in biological metabolite detection compared to conventional substrates. This article details the synthesis and use of functionalized perovskites for plant metabolites measurement. It analyzes their pros and cons in this context. The manuscript analyzes perovskite-based SERS substrates, including single-crystalline perovskites with enhanced optoelectronic properties. This manuscript aims to identify this study gap by comprehensively reviewing the literature and using it to investigate plant metabolite detection in future studies.

SERS-Temperature Dual-Mode T-type Lateral Flow Strip for Accurate Detection of Free and Total Prostate-Specific Antigens in Blood

Accurate point-of-care (POC) analysis of cancer markers is the essence in the comprehensive early screening and treatment of cancer. Dual-mode synchronous detection is one of the effective approaches to reduce the probability of false negatives or false positives. As a result, this can greatly improve the accuracy of diagnosis. In this work, a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-temperature dual-mode T-type lateral flow strip was fabricated to direct and simultaneous POC detection of total and free prostate-specific antigens (t-PSA and f-PSA) in blood. With the advantage of high stability of T-type lateral flow strip and simultaneous acquirement of assay results for t-PSA and f:t PSA ratio, the proposed method has high accuracy in the diagnosis of prostate cancer, especially in the diagnostic gray zone between 4.0 and 10.0 ng/mL. The SERS-temperature dual-signal has a good linear correlation with either f-PSA or t-PSA. To evaluate the clinical diagnostic performance of the proposed method, spiked human serum samples and the whole blood sample were analyzed. The assay results showed good recovery, and compared with traditional electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA) method (t-PSA: 43.151; f/t ratio: 0.08), the results obtained by the proposed method were similar (t-PSA: 40.15 (SERS), 36.21 (temperature); f/t ratio: 0.08 (SERS), 0.08 (temperature), but the detection time (15 min) and cost ($0.05) had been greatly reduced. Therefore, the proposed SERS-temperature synchronous dual-mode T-type lateral flow strip has a strong application potential in the field of accurate large-scale diagnostics of prostate cancer on-site by simultaneous POC detection of t-PSA and f-PSA in blood.