Detection of plant virus particles with a capacitive field-effect sensor

Melanie Jablonski,Michael J Schöning,Michael Keusgen,Christina Wege,Arshak Poghossian

doi:10.1007/s00216-021-03448-8

Abstract

Plant viruses are major contributors to crop losses and induce high economic costs worldwide. For reliable, on-site and early detection of plant viral diseases, portable biosensors are of great interest. In this study, a field-effect SiO2-gate electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor (EIS) sensor was utilized for the label-free electrostatic detection of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) particles as a model plant pathogen. The capacitive EIS sensor has been characterized regarding its TMV sensitivity by means of constant-capacitance method. The EIS sensor was able to detect biotinylated TMV particles from a solution with a TMV concentration as low as 0.025 nM. A good correlation between the registered EIS sensor signal and the density of adsorbed TMV particles assessed from scanning electron microscopy images of the SiO2-gate chip surface was observed. Additionally, the isoelectric point of the biotinylated TMV particles was determined via zeta potential measurements and the influence of ionic strength of the measurement solution on the TMV-modified EIS sensor signal has been studied.

Highlights

Harmful organisms, like animal pests, weeds, and plant pathogens, have reduced the productivity of crops since the beginning of agriculture
For zeta potential (ZP) measurements, the biotinylated tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) particles were dissolved in 10 mM SPP buffer, with a TMV concentration of 2.5 nM
Label-free detection of TMV particles with SiO2-gate EIS sensors Since EIS sensors are charge-sensitive devices and because biotinylated TMV particles are negatively charged at pH > 3.3, it can be expected that loading of TMV particles on the SiO2 surface will alter the gate surface charge

Summary

Introduction

Like animal pests, weeds, and plant pathogens, have reduced the productivity of crops since the beginning of agriculture. To avoid such crop losses, farmers have developed various strategies. Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany 5 Institute of Biological Information Processing (IBI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany [1] Despite this progress, there are still threats that cannot be averted, especially those induced by viruses. TMV can spread through the atmosphere and can be transmitted from plant to plant mechanically It is one of the most stable viruses and can retain its infectivity outside of plant cells in soil or in smoking tobacco for years [9]. TMV nanoparticles have been considered increasingly as infectious agents, and as highly attractive nanoscale material for bionanotechnology [12,13,14,15] and biochemical sensing applications [16,17,18,19,20]

Methods

Results

Conclusion