Rapid and sensitive detection of Salmonella in milk based on hybridization chain reaction and graphene oxide fluorescence platform

Salmonella is a foodborne pathogen that has contributed to numerous food safety accidents worldwide, making it necessary to detect contamination at an early stage. A pair of specific primers based on the invA gene of Salmonella was designed for PCR. Target double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) from PCR was purified and denatured at high temperature to obtain target single-stranded DNA (ssDNA). Two carboxyfluorescein-labeled hairpin probes (H1-FAM and H2-FAM) were designed with complementary portions to the ssDNA sequence so that binding could trigger H1-FAM and H2-FAM hybridization chain reaction (HCR) to produce a long dsDNA complex. In this study, graphene oxide (GO) was used in the development of a homogeneous fluorescence detection platform for Salmonella. Using this HCR-GO assay platform, Salmonella detection was completed in 3.5 h. Salmonella was reliably and specifically detected with a limit of detection (LOD) of 4.2 × 10¹ cfu/mL in pure culture. Moreover, this new HCR-GO assay platform was successfully applied to the detection of Salmonella in artificially contaminated milk with a LOD of 4.2 × 10² cfu/mL.