Efficient delivery of a DNA aptamer-based biosensor into plant cells for glucose sensing through thiol-mediated uptake

• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo0902
• Publication Date: 2022-06-29T17:51:14Z
• Authors: Quanbing Mou; Xueyi Xue; Yuan Ma; Mandira Banik; Valeria Garcia; Weijie Guo; Jiang Wang; Tingjie Song; Li-Qing Chen; Yi Lu
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; Glucose; Plant Cells; Arabidopsis; Tissue Distribution; Biomedicine and Life Sciences; Biosensing Techniques; DNA; Sulfhydryl Compounds; Aptamers, Nucleotide

DNA aptamers have been widely used as biosensors for detecting a variety of targets. Despite decades of success, they have not been applied to monitor any targets in plants, even though plants are a major platform for providing oxygen, food, and sustainable products ranging from energy fuels to chemicals, and high-value products such as pharmaceuticals. A major barrier to progress is a lack of efficient methods to deliver DNA into plant cells. We herein report a thiol-mediated uptake method that more efficiently delivers DNA into Arabidopsis and tobacco leaf cells than another state-of-the-art method, DNA nanostructures. Such a method allowed efficient delivery of a glucose DNA aptamer sensor into Arabidopsis for sensing glucose. This demonstration opens a new avenue to apply DNA aptamer sensors for functional studies of various targets, including metabolites, plant hormones, metal ions, and proteins in plants for a better understanding of the biodistribution and regulation of these species and their functions.