Early diagnosis of blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae, in rice plant by using an ultra-sensitive electrically magnetic-controllable electrochemical biosensor

•An electrochemical biosensor for the sensitive detection of M.oryzae in rice plant was developed.•The M.oryzae in rice plant can be detected before any symptomatic lesions were observed.•The electrochemical biosensor is simple, rapid, cost-effective and ultra-sensitive.•The proposed biosensor can be used to help farmers timely manage the rice blast disease.

As one of the most destructive and widespread disease of rice, Magnaporthe oryzae (also called Magnaporthe grisea) has a significant negative impact on rice production. Therefore, it is still in high demand to develop extremely sensitive and accurate methods for the early diagnosis of Magnaporthe oryzae (M. oryzae). In this study, we developed a novel magnetic-controllable electrochemical biosensor for the ultra sensitive and specific detection of M. oryzae in rice plant by using M. oryzae’s chitinases (Mgchi) as biochemical marker and a rice (Oryza sativa) cDNA encoding mannose-binding jacalin-related lectin (Osmbl) as recognition probe. The proposed biosensor combined with the merits of chronoamperometry, electrically magnetic-controllable gold electrode and magnetic beads (MBs)-based palladium nano-particles (PdNPs) catalysis amplification, has an ultra-high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of trace M. oryzae in rice plant. It could be used to detect M. oryzae in rice plant in the initial infection stage (before any symptomatic lesions were observed) to help farmers timely manage the disease. In comparison with previous methods, the proposed method has notable advantages such as higher sensitivity, excellent specificity, short analysis time, robust resistibility to complex matrix and low cost etc. The success in this study provides a reliable approach for the early diagnosis and fast screening of M. oryzae in rice plant.

Graphical abstractAn ultra sensitive and specific magnetic-controllable electrochemical biosensor for the early diagnosis of blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae, in rice plant was developed in this study.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide