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Published on: June 29, 2017
Bioelectronic Tongues Mimicking Insect Taste Systems for Real-Time Discrimination between Natural and Artificial
Yoonji Choi1, Sujin Lee2, Seungha Lee2
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Institute of Applied Physics, Seoul National University, Seoul08826, Republic of Korea.
Abstract:
A bioelectronic tongue (B-ET) mimicking insect taste systems is developed for the real-time detection and discrimination of natural and artificial sweeteners. Here, a carbon nanotube field-effect transistor (CNT-FET) was hybridized with nanovesicles including the honeybee sugar taste receptor, gustatory receptor 1 of Apis mellifera (AmGr1). This strategy allowed us to detect glucose, a major component of nectar, down to 100 fM in real time and identify sweet tastants from other tastants. It could also be utilized for the detection of glucose in dextrose tablet solutions. Importantly, we demonstrated the discrimination between natural and artificial sweeteners down to 10 pM even in real beverages such as decaffeinated coffee using our hybrid platform. In this respect, our B-ET mimicking insect taste systems can be a powerful tool for various applications such as food screening and basic studies on insect taste systems.
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