Electroactive Nanocarbon as Novel Label for DNA Analysis

Abstract

We use here a carbon nanomaterial as the electroactive label for the development of a low-cost and easy-to-miniaturize non-optical polymerase chain reaction (PCR). To this aim, graphene oxide nanocolloids (GONCs) were first conjugated to the DNA primers either by physical adsorption or by the formation of a covalent bond. Subsequently, GONC-modified primers were hybridized to their complementary counterpart to obtain GONC-modified double stranded DNA (GONC-dsDNA). The electrochemical signal, due to the reduction of the electrochemically reducible oxygen functionalities on GONC surface was then measured and correlated to the concertation of GONC-dsDNA.