Functional Nucleic Acid Based Platforms for Heavy Metal Ion Detection

Abstract

The detection of heavy metal ions plays a crucial role in the monitoring of environmental pollution. With the discovery of functional nucleic acids, more and more scientists have combined the detection of heavy metals with functional nucleic acids, because functional nucleic acids can convert metal ion signals into nucleic acid signals. With the continuous development of metal ion detection methods, the absolute quantification method of metal ions is gradually expected by people. Therefore, metal ions can be detected by a combination of digital PCR (dPCR) and functional nucleic acid. As the same time, dPCR have many advantages for metal ions detection and many examples was developed. Biological ion channels that exist in living organisms serve a significant function in vital activities, nanopore sensing combining with DNA also providing an opportunity to control or regulate the molecular transport on demand. In this chapter, Digital PCR and Nanopore sensing composed of FNAs for signal recognition and sensing components for signal output are reviewed for diverse categories of metal ions.