Rapid and sensitive detection of tenuazonic acid in agricultural by-products based on gold nano-flower lateral flow

Abstract

Tenuazonic acid (TA) is a highly toxic mycotoxin mainly generated by the fungi of Alternaria genus and widely contaminates agricultural by-products. Given the threat of TA to food-security, it is very important to develop rapid and sensitive detection methods for TA monitoring. In this study, gold nano-particles (AuNP) with average diameter near 17.25 nm were prepared, and the developed AuNP-based strip has an assay time of 15 min with visual limit of detection (LOD) of 12.5 ng/ml and threshold of 100 ng/ml. To further improve sensitivity, multi-branched gold nano-flowers (AuNF) with average diameter near 50 nm were prepared and characterized by UV-VIS and TEM, and the established AuNF-based strip has visual LOD of 0.78 ng/ml and threshold of 50 ng/ml within 15 min. Both assays were applied to determine TA in apple juice and tomato ketchup, and the results were consistent with that of UHPLC-MS/MS. Thus, these assays could be applied for rapid determination of trace TA in real samples.

Current Trends in Mycotoxin Detection with Various Types of Biosensors

“…Cai et al [22] developed an anti-TeA McAb-based test strip for rapid testing of TeA. For the optical probe, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs; average diameter 17.25 nm) and, to further improve the sensitivity, multibranched gold nanoflowers (AuNFs; average diameter 50 nm) were prepared and used to label anti-TeA McAb.…”

“…In addition, AOH is also an androgen agonist mycoestrogen. Since there are no globally established standards and norms for Alternaria mycotoxins, their investigation and determination are of utmost importance [19,[22][23][24].…”

Design of a Multisensory Device for Tomato Volatile Compound Detection Based on a Mixed Metal Oxide—Electrochemical Sensor Array and Optical Reader

“…Different technologies are being developed under precision/smart agriculture to improve agriculture yields and fruit/vegetable qualities and reduce the use of chemicals (pesticides, fungicides, and fertilizers) to achieve a more sustainable economy and agriculture [ 12 , 13 ]. Some of these new technologies are related to Artificial Intelligence [ 13 , 14 , 15 ], Machine Vision [ 16 ], Multi-genetic OMICs [ 17 ], electronic noses (E-noses) [ 18 , 19 , 20 ], wearable sensors [ 21 ], rapid test as isothermal amplification of Botrytis DNA [ 22 ], visual immunoassays [ 23 ], and lateral flow devices (LFD), which are being applied in laboratory models and also in tomato crops [ 24 , 25 ].…”