In collaboration with the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Kyushu University, the research group of the Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University has developed a technology to easily crush microorganisms and identify the types of microorganisms.
To identify the type of microorganism, it is necessary to examine the DNA inside the microorganism.However, since microorganisms have a cell wall, it is known that they have a greater resistance to external stimuli than animal cells, and a technique for efficiently and easily disrupting microorganisms has been required.
In this study, we have newly developed a microbial crushing method using nanowires (bars of several 10-100 nanometers).With this technology, nanowires can be entangled with microorganisms and efficiently crush the microorganisms to extract DNA by simply pumping a solution in which microorganisms are dispersed.With this technology, the research group succeeded in crushing not only Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis but also yeast, which is more difficult to crush than these.
Furthermore, we have developed a technology that can identify microorganisms by visual color change by combining with a device that can amplify DNA inside microorganisms crushed with nanowires.As a result, for example, it is considered that the presence or absence of bacteria such as O-157 can be inspected at home simply by collecting a solution containing microorganisms, mixing it with a test agent, setting it in a pump, and turning on the switch.
In the future, by utilizing this technology, it will be possible to easily detect dangerous microorganisms at the water's edge, and it is expected that it will lead to the prevention of infectious diseases derived from microorganisms.
Paper information:[ACS Nano] Engineering Nanowire-Mediated Cell Lysis for Microbial Cell Identification
