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Enzyme-free colorimetric assay for mercury(II) using DNA conjugated to gold nanoparticles and strand displacement amplification

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Abstract

The authors describe a colorimetric method for the determination of Hg(II) ion. It is based on the color change from red to colorless as displayed by gold nanoparticle (AuNP) modified with thymine - rich DNA. Signal amplification is accomplished by free strand displacement recycling. In this strategy, Hg(II) unfolds the arch-trigger duplex due to the high affinity between Hg(II) and the thymines to form T-Hg(II)-T structures, thereby causing the release of trigger. The liberated trigger unfolds the hairpin structure of H1, and unfolded H1 further unfolds with H2. As a result, the H2 hairpin displaces trigger, and the released trigger unfolds another H1. This results in strong and enzyme-free strand displacement recycling amplification. The aggregation of DNA-AuNPs occurs in the presence of the duplex formed by hairpins H2 and H1. This results in a color change from red to colorless that can be visually observed. Under optimal conditions, the assay has a detection range over 4 orders of magnitude and a 3.4 nM detection limit. The assay is selective, sensitive, rapid and cost-effective. In our perception, it represents a useful platform for determination of Hg(II).

Schematic presentation of the  simple, rapid, low cost colorimetric detection of mercury(II) based on enzyme-free strand displacement amplification along with DNA-labeled AuNP.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NSFC (21405060, 1471644), Shandong Province Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholars (JQ201410), and Shandong Province Natural Science Funds (ZR2015CM027).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources and Environment, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250022, People’s Republic of China

    Su Liu & Xueqi Leng

  2. Shandong Yellow River Institute of Metrology, Jinan, 250022, People’s Republic of China

    Xu Wang

  3. School of Biological Sciences and Technology, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250022, People’s Republic of China

    Qianqian Pei, Xuejun Cui, Yu Wang & Jiadong Huang

  4. Key Laboratory of Chemical Sensing & Analysis in Universities of Shandong, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250022, People’s Republic of China

    Jiadong Huang

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  1. Su Liu
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Correspondence to Yu Wang.

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Liu, S., Leng, X., Wang, X. et al. Enzyme-free colorimetric assay for mercury(II) using DNA conjugated to gold nanoparticles and strand displacement amplification. Microchim Acta 184, 1969–1976 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-017-2182-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-017-2182-7

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