Bacteriophages as biorecognition elements in capacitive biosensors: Phage and host bacteria detection

Herein, we introduced a molecular imprinting based capacitive biosensor for real-time and highly sensitive bacteriophage detection. The sensing mechanism was based on the binding of target phage into the specific cavities on the electrode surface which resulted in a measurable change in the total capacitance of the system. Phage detection was investigated in the concentration range of 1.0 × 101–1.0 × 105 plaque forming units (pfu)/mL and the limit of detection (LOD) was measured as 10 pfu/mL which shows the high sensitivity of the system compared to results reported for previous studies. The system also allowed the detection of phages in river water samples which is very important for the usability of the system as in-field analysis for different applications e.g. investigating the contamination of drinking water via wastewater or reservoir water in the future. Recently, due to their high specificity towards their host bacteria, being cost-effective and also stable in harsh environments, bacteriophages have been used as biorecognition elements in many studies. Due to this reason, the applicability of the phage imprinted biosensor was also investigated for host bacteria detection. E. coli detection has been performed in the concentration range of 1.0 × 102–1.0 × 107 colony forming units (cfu)/mL with a LOD value of 100 cfu/mL. This system offers direct, real-time, very sensitive and rapid detection of bacteriophage and its host bacteria.