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PLANT-Dx: A Molecular Diagnostic for Point-of-Use Detection of Plant Pathogens.

ABSTRACT: Synthetic biology based diagnostic technologies have improved upon gold standard diagnostic methodologies by decreasing cost, increasing accuracy, and enhancing portability. However, there has been little effort in adapting these technologies toward applications related to point-of-use monitoring of plant and crop health. Here, we take a step toward this vision by developing an approach that couples isothermal amplification of specific plant pathogen genomic sequences with customizable synthetic RNA regulators that are designed to trigger the production of a colorimetric output in cell-free gene expression reactions. We demonstrate our system can sense viral derived sequences with high sensitivity and specificity, and can be utilized to directly detect viruses from infected plant material. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the entire system can operate using only body heat and naked-eye visual analysis of outputs. We anticipate these strategies to be important components of user-friendly and deployable diagnostic systems that can be configured to detect a range of important plant pathogens.

SUBMITTER: Verosloff M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6479721 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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PLANT-Dx: A Molecular Diagnostic for Point-of-Use Detection of Plant Pathogens.

Verosloff M M Chappell J J Perry K L KL Thompson J R JR Lucks J B JB

ACS synthetic biology 20190311 4

Synthetic biology based diagnostic technologies have improved upon gold standard diagnostic methodologies by decreasing cost, increasing accuracy, and enhancing portability. However, there has been little effort in adapting these technologies toward applications related to point-of-use monitoring of plant and crop health. Here, we take a step toward this vision by developing an approach that couples isothermal amplification of specific plant pathogen genomic sequences with customizable synthetic ...[more]

PMID: 30790518

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Project description:An estimated 1.5 billion microbial infections occur globally each year and result in ∼4.6 million deaths. A technology gap associated with commercially available diagnostic tests in remote and underdeveloped regions prevents timely pathogen identification for effective antibiotic chemotherapies for infected patients. The result is a trial-and-error approach that is limited in effectiveness, increases risk for patients while contributing to antimicrobial drug resistance, and reduces the lifetime of antibiotics. This paper addresses this important diagnostic technology gap by describing a low-cost, portable, rapid, and easy-to-use microfluidic cartridge-based system for detecting the ESKAPE (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter spp.) bacterial pathogens that are most commonly associated with antibiotic resistance. The point-of-care molecular diagnostic system consists of a vacuum-degassed microfluidic cartridge preloaded with lyophilized recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) assays and a small portable battery-powered electronic incubator/reader. The isothermal RPA assays detect the targeted ESKAPE pathogens with high sensitivity (e.g., a limit of detection of ∼10 nucleic acid molecules) that is comparable to that of current PCR-based assays, and they offer advantages in power consumption, engineering, and robustness, which are three critical elements required for the point-of-care setting. This paper describes a portable system for rapidly identifying bacteria in resource-limited environments; we highlight the capabilities of the technology by detecting different pathogens within the ESKAPE collection, which cause nosocomial infections. The system is designed around isothermal DNA-based assays housed within an autonomous plastic cartridge that are designed with the end user in mind, who may have limited technological training. Displaying excellent sensitivity and specificity, the assay systems that we demonstrate may enable future diagnoses of bacterial infection to guide the development of effective chemotherapies and may have a role in areas beyond health where rapid detection is valuable, including in industrial processing and manufacturing, food security, agriculture, and water quality testing.

Dataset Information

PLANT-Dx: A Molecular Diagnostic for Point-of-Use Detection of Plant Pathogens.

Publications

PLANT-Dx: A Molecular Diagnostic for Point-of-Use Detection of Plant Pathogens.

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