Analytical Sciences


Abstract − Analytical Sciences, 33(2), 165 (2017).

A Label-free “Turn-on” Fluorescence Method for Detecting Mercury Ion in Aqueous Solution Based on N-Methyl Mesoporphyrin IX (NMM)/G-quadruplex DNA
Xingping ZHANG, Baomiao DING, Huawei WU, Jiujun WANG, and Hualin YANG
Jingchu Food Research and Development Center, College of Life Science, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, Hubei 434025, China
In the present work, a simple design of “turn-on” fluorescence method for mercury ion was developed and explored based on specific T-Hg-T mismatches as a recognizer and N-methyl mesoporphyrin IX (NMM)/G-quadruplex DNA system as a reporter. The titration experiment showed that the mercury-ion concentration and the fluorescence intensity signal change exhibited a consistent linear correlation within the 50 to 500 nM range with a detection limit down to 12.9 nM. In a selectivity experiment, our method showed obvious selectivity against other metal ions, being consistent with other reported detection methods of mercury ion based on the specific reactivity of T-Hg-T mismatches. Our method was then successfully employed to detect mercury ion in pond water with excellent reliability.