A DNA piezoelectric biosensor assay coupled with a polymerase chain reaction for bacterial toxicity determination in environmental samples

In this paper, we report the realisation of a DNA piezoelectric biosensor coupled with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the detection of a specific bacterial toxicity factor. Biotinylated 23-mer probes were immobilised on the streptavidin coated gold surface of a quartz crystal; streptavidin was covalently bound to the thiol/dextran modified gold surface. The hybridisation of the immobilised probe with a synthetic oligonucleotide was investigated; the absence of non-specific adsorption was verified using a non-complementary oligonucleotide. Many cycles of measurements can be performed on the same crystal surface by regenerating the single strand with 1 mM HCl. The same hybridisation reaction was then performed using real samples of DNA extracted from bacteria and amplified by PCR. The PCR product was a fragment of a specific gene of Aeromonas hydrophila. The piezoelectric biosensor was able to distinguish samples containing the gene or not; in this way it was possible to determine the pathogenicity of different Aeromonas strains isolated from water, vegetables or human specimens. Experiments with non-specific samples confirmed the absence of adsorption or non-specific effects on the quartz crystal treated with the reported procedure.