A DNA probe based on phosphorescent resonance energy transfer for detection of transgenic 35S promoter DNA.

A QDs-DNA nano-probe was made by combining Mn-doped ZnS room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) quantum dots (QDs) and DNA. Then an RTP sensor for quantitative detection of genetically-modified mark sequence cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter (Ca MV 35S) DNA was built on basis of phosphorescent resonance energy transfer (PRET). The underlying principles were that a QDs-DNA water-soluble nano-probe was built by connecting single-strand DNA to the surfaces of QDs via a ligand exchange method. This probe had good RTP performance and could well identify Ca MV 35S. Thereby, the simple, rapid and efficient detection of genetically-modified organisms was realized. With the increase of target DNA sequence, the phosphorescent intensity of QDs was gradually reduced due to the energy transfer between QDs and the organic quencher BHQ. This sensor had a detection limit of 4.03nM and a detection range of 12-300nM. Moreover, this sensor had high selectivity. This sensor could effectively detect the target DNA compared with mismatched and random sequences. Thus, this method is very promising for biological analysis.