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Melamine-Mediated Base Mismatch for Label-Free and Amplified Sensitive Fluorescent Detection of Melamine in Milk

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Abstract

Sensitive identification and detection of melamine illegally added to food to increase false protein content is important for food safety monitoring because melamine can cause tissue injury or even death above the safety regulation level. Melamine can coordinate with two thymines to form stable T-melamine-T structures. On the basis of such a unique interaction, we have developed a T-melamine-T base mismatch-mediated rolling circle amplification (RCA) signal enhancement means for amplified sensitive and label-free fluorescent detection of melamine in milk. The presence of melamine facilitates the hybridization between two T:T base mismatch containing DNA strands, which triggers RCA generation of many long sequences with repeated G-quadruplex segments. The fluorescent dye, thioflavin T, further binds the resulting G-quadruplexes to exhibit substantially enhanced fluorescence for sensitive detection of melamine at the low nanomolar level in a label-free manner. Besides, the developed approach is highly selective toward the discrimination and detection of melamine in milk samples.

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Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21505010 and 21675128).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing, 400054, People’s Republic of China

    Lin Xu & Bingying Jiang

  2. Key Laboratory of Luminescent and Real-Time Analytical Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, People’s Republic of China

    Daxiu Li, Yun Xiang & Ruo Yuan

Authors
  1. Lin Xu
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  2. Daxiu Li
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  3. Bingying Jiang
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  4. Yun Xiang
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  5. Ruo Yuan
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Correspondence to Bingying Jiang or Yun Xiang.

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Conflict of Interest

Lin Xu declares that she has no conflict of interest. Daxiu Li declares that she has no conflict of interest. Bingying Jiang declares that she has no conflict of interest. Yun Xiang declares that he has no conflict of interest. Ruo Yuan declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Xu, L., Li, D., Jiang, B. et al. Melamine-Mediated Base Mismatch for Label-Free and Amplified Sensitive Fluorescent Detection of Melamine in Milk. Food Anal. Methods 12, 1255–1261 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-019-01465-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-019-01465-z

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