High-throughput detection of food-borne pathogenic bacteria using oligonucleotide microarray with quantum dots as fluorescent labels

Bacterial pathogens are mostly responsible for food-borne diseases, and there is still substantial room for improvement in the effective detection of these organisms. In the present study, we explored a new method to detect target pathogens easily and rapidly with high sensitivity and specificity. This method uses an oligonucleotide microarray combined with quantum dots as fluorescent labels. Oligonucleotide probes targeting the 16SrRNA gene were synthesized to create an oligonucleotide microarray. The PCR products labeled with biotin were subsequently hybridized using an oligonucleotide microarray. Following incubation with CdSe/ZnS quantum dots coated with streptavidin, fluorescent signals were detected with a PerkinElmer Gx Microarray Scanner. The results clearly showed specific hybridization profiles corresponding to the bacterial species assessed. Two hundred and sixteen strains of food-borne bacterial pathogens, including standard strains and isolated strains from food samples, were used to test the specificity, stability, and sensitivity of the microarray system. We found that the oligonucleotide microarray combined with quantum dots used as fluorescent labels can successfully discriminate the bacterial organisms at the genera or species level, with high specificity and stability as well as a sensitivity of 10 colony forming units (CFU)/mL of pure culture. We further tested 105 mock-contaminated food samples and achieved consistent results as those obtained from traditional biochemical methods. Together, these results indicate that the quantum dot-based oligonucleotide microarray has the potential to be a powerful tool in the detection and identification of pathogenic bacteria in foods.