Graphene-Based Steganographically Aptasensing System for Information Computing, Encryption and Hiding, Fluorescence Sensing and in Vivo Imaging of Fish Pathogens

Abstract

Inspired by information processing and communication of life based on complex molecular interactions, some artificial (bio)­chemical systems have been developed for applications in molecular information processing or chemo/biosensing and imaging. However, little attention has been paid to simultaneously and comprehensively utilize the information computing, encoding, and molecular recognition capabilities of molecular-level systems (such as DNA-based systems) for multifunctional applications. Herein, a graphene-based steganographically aptasensing system was constructed for multifunctional application, which relies on specific molecular recognition and information encoding abilities of DNA aptamers (Aeromonas hydrophila and Edwardsiella tarda-binding aptamers as models) and the selective adsorption and fluorescence quenching capacities of graphene oxide (GO). Although graphene–DNA systems have been widely used in biosensors and diagnostics, our proposed graphene-based aptasensing system can not only be utilized for fluorescence sensing and in vivo imaging of fish pathogens (A. hydrophila and E. tarda), but can also function as a molecular-level logic computing system where the combination of matters (specific molecules or materials) as inputs produces the resulting product (matter level) or fluorescence (energy level) changes as two outputs. More importantly and interestingly, our graphene-based steganographically aptasensing system can also serve as a generally doubly cryptographic and steganographic system for sending different secret messages by using pathogen-binding DNA aptamers as information carriers, GO as a cover, and a pair of keys, that is, target pathogen as a public key, the encryption key used to encode or decode a message in DNA as a private key. Our study not only provides a novel nanobiosensing assay for rapid and effective sensing and in vivo imaging of fish pathogens, but also demonstrates a prototype of (bio)­molecular steganography as an important and interesting extension direction of molecular information technology, which is helpful in probably promoting the development of multifunctional molecular-level devices or machines.

Graphene-Based Steganographic Aptasensor for Information Computing and Monitoring Toxins of Biofilm in Food

“…In this internet era of information (text, audio, video, and image data), information storage and cryptography have crucial roles for countries and enterprises. To ensure information security and prevent information leakage, the universally used methods are information encryption and information concealment (Zhu et al, 2019). However, the safety level of these methods is low.…”

“…However, the above issues can be solved perfectly by DNA molecules. Therefore, traditional logic circuits will give way to molecular logic gates, and DNA is an optimum alternative to silicon (Liu et al, 2012;Zhu et al, 2019).…”

“…GO-based fluorescence biosensors have been extensively applied in a variety of detection fields. In addition, the different measured targets include metal ions (Qian et al, 2015;Wu et al, 2019c), cells (Wang et al, 2010), proteins (Zhou et al, 2015), pathogens (Zhu et al, 2019), mycotoxins (Sun A. L. et al, 2017;Yugender Goud et al, 2017), and DNA and other small molecules (Wang et al, 2018;Zhao et al, 2019). It is interesting to note that GO has different adsorption capacities for single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), and G-quadruplex (Sun A. L. et al, 2017).…”

Carbon Textile Decorated with Pseudocapacitive VC/VxOy for High‐Performance Flexible Supercapacitors

“…Without a doubt, once such a device is developed, the current problem at hand to effectively and quickly store the generated intermittent energy and to make it accessible when needed can be well solved. So far, numerous approaches to improve both energy and power density of supercapacitor have been demonstrated . These include changing device architectures (e.g., hybrid, asymmetric, or symmetric supercapacitor) and improving capacitive performance of electrode materials (like, carbon materials, transition metal oxides/hydroxides, and conducting polymers) mainly by structuring .…”

“…So far, numerous approaches to improve both energy and power density of supercapacitor have been demonstrated . These include changing device architectures (e.g., hybrid, asymmetric, or symmetric supercapacitor) and improving capacitive performance of electrode materials (like, carbon materials, transition metal oxides/hydroxides, and conducting polymers) mainly by structuring . It has been recently reported that the potential strategy to increase both energy and power density of supercapacitor is to decorate high specific‐surface‐area capacitive materials with nanosized pseudocapacitive materials like transition metal based compounds (i.e., hybrid electrode), thereby inducing synergistic effect of electrical double layer and pseudocapacitance‐based charge storing .…”