A tutorial review for employing enzymes for the construction of G-quadruplex-based sensing platforms

•We discuss strategies to construct G-quadruplex-based assays by DNA-modifying enzyme.•The basic principle of G-quadruplex-based DNA optical sensors has been introduced.•Enzymes are tools for signal transduction mechanism or sensitivity enhancement.

With rapid advances in the field of DNA chemistry, nucleic acids and DNA-modifying enzymes have recently emerged as versatile components for the construction of oligonucleotide-based sensors. Meanwhile, the G-quadruplex motif has been widely employed for the development of DNA-based assays due to its diverse structural variety. In this tutorial, we introduce the principles of G-quadruplex-based sensing and the use of DNA-modifying enzymes for sensor platform development. We also highlight recent studies of the application of DNA-modifying enzymes for the development of G-quadruplex-based luminescent detection platforms with a view towards how those enzymes play an important role in sensitivity enhancement.

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