Bacteriophage conjugated IRMOF-3 as a novel opto-sensor for S. arlettae

Abstract

This article reports the novel assembly of a bacteriophage-based fluorescent sensor for the selective and sensitive detection of a model bacterium ‘Staphylococcus arlettae (S. arlettae)’. A host specific bacteriophage was bioconjugated with a fluorescence metal organic framework ‘IRMOF-3’. Changes in the photoluminescence intensities of this fluorescent probe were correlated with bacterial concentrations. The proposed bacteriophage based opto-sensor provided a low detection limit (100 cfu mL⁻¹) along with specificity in the detection with respect to other some non-specific bacteria, e.g. S. aureus and E. coli. The detection was achieved over a wide range of bacterial concentrations, i.e. 10²–10¹⁰ cfu mL⁻¹S. arlettae. Compared to antibody and DNA based optical sensors, the use of bacteriophage in conjugation with IRMOF-3 should offer advantages of simplicity and stability. The use of IRMOF-3 as a fluorescent molecule should also offer the development of reproducible sensors because of its well defined structural geometry and hierarchical assembly.