The rapid growth of in vitro nucleic acid replication has offered a powerful tool for clinical diagnosis, food safety detection and environmental monitorning. Successful implementation of various isothermal nucleic acid amplification methods enables rapid replication of target sequences without the participant of a thermal cycler. Point-of-need analysis possesses great superiorities in user-friendly, instant results analysis, low manufacturing, and consumable costs. To meet the great challenge of point-of-need analysis, developing simple and rapid visual methods becomes crucial. Submicro- and nanomaterials possess unique surface properties, which enables their rapid response to DNA amplicons. Their unique optical, magnetic, catalytic, and other physical/chemical properties have been frequently employed for the visual detection of in vitro nucleic acid replications. Herein, we aim to review the submicro- and nanomaterials-based visual methods for detection of nucleic acid amplification. The visual methods are classified according to the designing strategies (e.g. LSPR, bridging flocculation, luminescence, catalytic reaction, separation, etc.). The basic principles, merits and drawbacks of each strategy are described. The application in analysis of nucleic acid targets and non-nucleic acid targets are discussed. The main challenges and future research directions are also highlighted in this rapidly emerging field.

体外快速生长核酸复制为临床诊断，食品安全性检测和环境监测提供了强大的工具。各种等温核酸扩增方法的成功实施使得无需热循环仪的参与即可快速复制靶序列。需求点分析在用户友好的即时结果分析，低制造成本和易耗成本方面具有巨大优势。为了应对需求分析的巨大挑战，开发简单快速的视觉方法变得至关重要。亚微米和纳米材料具有独特的表面特性，可使其对DNA扩增子快速反应。它们独特的光学，磁性，催化和其他物理/化学特性已被广泛用于体外视觉检测核酸复制。在本文中，我们旨在回顾基于亚微材料和纳米材料的视觉方法来检测核酸扩增。视觉方法根据设计策略进行分类（例如LSPR，桥接絮凝，发光，催化反应，分离等）。描述了每种策略的基本原理，优缺点。讨论了在核酸靶标和非核酸靶标分析中的应用。在这个迅速发展的领域中，主要挑战和未来研究方向也得到了强调。