Direct Fluorescence Detection of RNA on Microarrays by Surface-Initiated Enzymatic Polymerization

TitleDirect Fluorescence Detection of RNA on Microarrays by Surface-Initiated Enzymatic Polymerization
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2013
AuthorsTjong, V, Yu, H, Hucknall, A, Chilkoti, A
JournalAnalytical Chemistry
Volume85
Issue1
Pagination426 - 433
Date Published01/2013
ISSN1520-6882
Abstract

We report the first demonstration of surface-initiated enzymatic polymerization (SIEP) for the direct detection of RNA in a fluorescence microarray format. This new method incorporates multiple fluorophores into an RNA strand using the two-step sequential and complementary reactions catalyzed by yeast poly(A) polymerase (PaP) to incorporate deoxyadenosine triphosphate (dATP) at the 3′–OH of an RNA molecule, followed by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) to catalyze the sequential addition of a mixture of natural and fluorescent deoxynucleotides (dNTPs) at the 3′–OH of an RNA–DNA hybrid. We found that the 3′-end of RNA can be efficiently converted into DNA (50% conversion) by polymerization of dATP using yeast PaP, and the short DNA strand appended to the end of the RNA by PaP acts as the initiator for the TdT-catalyzed polymerization of longer DNA strands from a mixture of natural and fluorescent dNTPs that contain up to 45 Cy3 fluorophores per 1 kb DNA. We obtained an 2 pM limit of detection (LOD) and a 3 log-linear dynamic range for hybridization of a short 21 base-long RNA target to an immobilized peptide nucleic acid probe, while fragmented mRNA targets from three different full length mRNA transcripts yielded a 10 pM LOD with a similar dynamic range in a microarray format.

DOI10.1021/ac303132j
Short TitleAnal. Chem.