The inhibition of fluorescence resonance energy transfer between multicolor quantum dots for rapid and sensitive detection of Staphylococcus aureus

•A FRET method based on multicolor QDs for S. aureus detection are established.•The two color QDs are used as donors and acceptors in FRET system.•The fluorescence intensity of QDs quenches linearly with count of S. aureus increases.•The linear ranges are 52 to 2.6 × 105 CFU mL−1 with detection limit of 10 CFU/mL.•This method is satisfactorily applied to the analysis of apple juice and milk samples.

In this paper, we constructed the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) system between two multi-color quantum dots (QDs) of two sizes for rapid and sensitive detection of Staphylococcus aureus. In this system, green-emitting QDs conjugated with rabbit anti-S. aureus antibodies were used as energy donors while orange-emitting QDs conjugated with goat-anti-rabbit IgG were used as energy acceptors to form FRET system. Pre-binding of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) on the donor occupied the binding sites and thus blocked resonance energy transfer between two colors QDs, leading to the quenching fluorescence of the acceptor. The fluorescence of acceptor has a linear calibration graph with the concentrations of S. aureus from 52 to 2.6 × 105 CFU mL−1. The low detection limit was 10 CFU/mL. It was worth mentioning that the detection method of S. aureus had been applied to the analysis of apple juice and milk samples, which could potentially be developed into a sensor in the further study.

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