Bacterial detection based on polymerase chain reaction and microbead dielectrophoresis characteristics

In this study, an electrical DNA detection method was applied to bacterial detection. DNA was extracted from bacteria and amplified by polymerase chain reaction. The microbeads were labelled with amplicons, altering their surface conductance and therefore their dielectrophoresis characteristics. Amplicon-labelled microbeads could thus be trapped within a high-strength electric field, where they formed a pearl chain between the electrodes, resulting in an increased conductance between the electrodes. This method reduces the amplicon detection time from 1-2 h to 15 min, compared with the conventional method. The presented method realised quantitative detection of specific bacteria at concentrations above 1 × 10⁵ and 2.4 × 10⁴ CFU/ml for bacterial solutions with and without other bacterial presence, respectively.