Dense Layer of Bacteriophages Ordered in Alternating Electric Field and Immobilized by Surface Chemical Modification as Sensing Element for Bacteria Detection
2017
Richter, Łukasz | Bielec, Krzysztof | Leśniewski, Adam | Łoś, Marcin | Paczesny, Jan | Hołyst, Robert
Faster and more sensitive environmental monitoring should be developed to face the worldwide problem of bacterial infections. To remedy this issue, we demonstrate a bacteria-sensing element that utilizes dense and ordered layers of bacteriophages specific to the given bacteria strain. We combine (1) the chemical modification of a surface to increase the surface coverage of bacteriophages (2) with an alternating electric field to greatly increase the number of properly oriented bacteriophages at the surface. Usually, in sensing elements, a random orientation of bacteriophages results in steric hindrance, which results in no more than a few percent of all receptors being available. An increased number of properly ordered phages results in the optimal performance of phage receptors, manifesting in up to a 64-fold increase in sensitivity and a limit of detection as low as 100 CFU mL–¹. Our sensing elements can be applied for selective, sensitive, and fast (15 min) bacterial detection. A well-studied pair T4 bacteriophage—bacteria Escherichia coli, was used as a model; however, the method could be adapted to prepare bacteriophage-based sensors for detection of a variety of bacterial strains.
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