Electrochemiluminescence Detection Of Genetically Modified Organisms

With the development of biotechnology, more and more genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have entered commercial market. Because of the safety concerns, detection and characterization of GMOs have attracted much attention recently. Methods for the identification of GMOs can be divided into two categories. The first category includes nucleotide-base amplification methods, such as polymerize chain reaction (PCR). The second category includes protein-based methods, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA). Naturally, every detection method has its own specificities and limitations. The detection using ELISA method is low sensitive. In the 2 categories, PCR is the most popular method used worldwide. But PCR will cause false positive result.Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) method is a chemiluminescent (CL) reaction of species generated electrochemically at an electrode surface with high efficiency. In this paper, ECL combined with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and two types of nucleic acid probes hybridization was applied to detect genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for the first time. The GMOs include soybean, tobacco, papaya, capsicum, tomato, and Arabidopsis thalianas. Most GMOs contain Cauliflower mosaic virus 35S (CaMV35S) promoter and nopaline synthase (NOS) terminator. So, in this study, whether the organisms contain GM components was discriminated by detecting the CaMV35S promoter and NOS terminator. The experiment results show that the detection limit is 100 fmol of PCR products. The promoter and the terminator can be clearly detected in GMOs. The method may provide a new means for the detection of GMOs due to its simplicity and high efficiency.In addition, the GM tobaccos have been detected by non-PCR multi-ECL probes detection method. We hope that a commercial detection method will be built with farther research.