Quartz Crystal Microbalance Biomolecular Sensor for Plant Pathogen Detection

Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) consists of a quartz crystal sensor, signal detection, and data processing. As a label-free and susceptible quality detection system, QCM has a broad application prospect as it can be developed and constructed with a variety of ultrasensitive sensing systems by combining nano-amplification methods such as gold nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles, silver nanoclusters, and bio-amplification methods such as enzyme catalysis. Therefore, Lifeasible introduces this system to provide testing services for plant pathogen detection personnel and has the advantages of low cost, no labeling, high sensitivity, and real-time online detection.

Detection principle

In determining plant pathogens, we typically modify the gold plating on the quartz surface to give it the ability to capture the substance to be measured. When a liquid containing microorganisms flows over the quartz surface, the target microorganisms are bound by the modification and immobilized on the quartz surface. The quartz crystal with microorganisms on the surface changes the electric field strength required to cause piezoelectric resonance due to a change in its mass, which manifests itself as a decrease in the vibration frequency when the existing electric field strength is constant.

Application examples

• We used specific antibodies to form self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on the metal surface of QCM crystals, resulting in a biosensing system with detection sensitivity close to ELISA. The SAMs QCM sensing system can detect Maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) plant infection. In addition, the immunosensing system is also quite selective for similar viruses such as Maize dwarf mosaic virus (WSMV) and Wheat streak mosaic virus (MDMV).
• Using a QCM chip as a sensor and ethyl cellulose (EC) as a sensing element, we could detect an early infestation of Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) in Citrus spp. to prevent the possibility of early infection of Citrus spp. with pathogenic bacteria.

Advantages

In addition to the quality of plant pathogen detection, factors such as temperature and external vibration can cause changes in the resonance frequency of the quartz wafer. Therefore, Lifeasible will reduce the influence of environmental factors through temperature control, vibration damping, and other designs to improve the stability of QCM detection. Our rigorous testing system makes us your trusted partner; please feel free to contact us to submit your testing needs.