A Highly Sensitive Electrochemical DNA Biosensor from Acrylic-Gold Nano-composite for the Determination of Arowana Fish Gender

A Highly Sensitive Electrochemical DNA Biosensor from Acrylic-Gold Nano-composite for the Determination of Arowana Fish Gender

Discover Nano, August 2017

28798991

Mahbubur Rahman, Lee Yook Heng, Dedi Futra, Chew Poh Chiang, Zulkafli A. Rashid, Tan Ling Ling

The present research describes a simple method for the identification of the gender of arowana fish (Scleropages formosus). The DNA biosensor was able to detect specific DNA sequence at extremely low level down to atto M regimes. An electrochemical DNA biosensor based on acrylic microsphere-gold nanoparticle (AcMP-AuNP) hybrid composite was fabricated. Hydrophobic poly(n-butylacrylate-N-acryloxysuccinimide) microspheres were synthesised with a facile and well-established one-step photopolymerization procedure and physically adsorbed on the AuNPs at the surface of a carbon screen printed electrode (SPE). The DNA biosensor was constructed simply by grafting an aminated DNA probe on the succinimide functionalised AcMPs via a strong covalent attachment. DNA hybridisation response was determined by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) technique using anthraquinone monosulphonic acid redox probe as an electroactive oligonucleotide label (Table 1). A low detection limit at 1.0 × 10(-18) M with a wide linear calibration range of 1.0 × 10(-18) to 1.0 × 10(-8) M (R (2) = 0.99) can be achieved by the proposed DNA biosensor under optimal conditions. Electrochemical detection of arowana DNA can be completed within 1 hour. Due to its small size and light weight, the developed DNA biosensor holds high promise for the development of functional kit for fish culture usage.