Application of plasmonic nanoprobes for SERS sensing and imaging of biotargets in plant systems
The knowledge over gene expression dynamics and location in plants is crucial for applications ranging from basic biological research to agricultural biotechnology (e.g., biofuel development). However, current methods cannot provide in vivo dynamic detection of genomic targets in plants. This limitation is due to the complex sample preparation needed by current methods for nucleic acids detection, which disrupt spatial and temporal resolution. We report the development of a unique multimodal method based on plasmonics-active nanoprobes, referred to inverse molecular sensitnels capable of in vivo imaging and biosensing of microRNA biotargets within whole plant using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection. This work lays the foundations for in vivo functional imaging of RNA biotargets in plants with previously unmet spatial and temporal resolution for many applications ranging from agricultural biotechnology to biofuel research.
