Label-free detection of 16S ribosomal RNA hybridization on reusable DNA arrays using surface plasmon resonance imaging

Summary In this paper, we describe the detection of bacterial cell‐extracted 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) using an emerging technology, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging of DNA arrays. Surface plasmon resonance enables detection of molecular interactions on surfaces in response to changes in the index of refraction, therefore eliminating the need for a fluorescent or radioactive label. A variation of the more common SPR techniques, SPR imaging enables detection from multiple probes in a reusable array format. The arrays developed here contain DNA probes (15–21 bases) designed to be complementary to 16S rRNA gene sequences of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis as well as to a highly conserved sequence found in rRNAs from most members of the domain Bacteria. We report species‐specific hybridization of cell‐extracted total RNA and in vitro transcribed 16S rRNA to oligonucleotide probes on SPR arrays. We tested multiple probe sequences for each species, and found that success or failure of hybridization was dependent upon probe position in the 16S rRNA molecule. It was also determined that one of the probes intended to bind 16S rRNA also bound an unknown protein. The amount of binding to these probes was quantified with SPR imaging. A detection limit of 2 µg ml−1 was determined for fragmented E. coli total cellular RNA under the experimental conditions used. These results indicate the feasibility of using SPR imaging for 16S rRNA identification and encourage further development of this method for direct detection of other RNA molecules.