In this study, a microRNA (miRNA) biosensor based on fluorescence quenching technique is designed and developed to determine the miRNAs with altered expression during nitrogen deficiency in plants. The method is based on the difference between the fluorescence absorption of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets in the present of gold nanoparticles-labelled DNA probe and that of GO after the DNA hybridization with target miRNA. Results revealed that the biosensor was capable of determining the concentration of 17 miRNAs related to the nitrogen stress in plants with acceptable specificity, limit of detection (LoD) and linear range. LoD values for the determination of studied miRNAs ranged from 45 to 420 aM. Furthermore, wide linear ranges were obtained for the determination of miRNA-156 (500-100,000 aM), miRNA-167 (500-20,000 aM), miRNA-171 (200-80,000 aM), and miRNA-398 (300-120,000 aM). The introduced biosensor can be a more reliable alternative to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and northern blot for plant scientists who work on plant stress-related miRNAs.

中文翻译：

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使用氧化石墨烯纳米片的荧光猝灭法测定植物中与氮缺乏相关的microRNA。

在这项研究中，设计并开发了一种基于荧光猝灭技术的microRNA（miRNA）生物传感器，用于确定植物体内氮缺乏时表达改变的miRNA。该方法基于金纳米颗粒标记的DNA探针中存在的氧化石墨烯（GO）纳米片的荧光吸收与与目标miRNA进行DNA杂交后GO的荧光吸收之间的差异。结果表明，该生物传感器能够以可接受的特异性，检测限（LoD）和线性范围确定与植物氮胁迫相关的17种miRNA的浓度。用于确定研究的miRNA的LoD值范围为45至420 aM。此外，获得了宽的线性范围，可用于测定miRNA-156（500-100,000 aM），miRNA-167（500-20,000 aM），miRNA-171（200-80,000 aM），和miRNA-398（300-120,000 aM）。对于从事植物胁迫相关miRNA的植物科学家而言，引入的生物传感器可以是聚合酶链反应（PCR）和Northern blot的更可靠替代品。