Energy driven cascade recognition for selective detection of nucleic acids with high discrimination factor at room temperature

In this article, we demonstrated a cascade recognition strategy for the detection of single strand nucleic acid with high discrimination factor at room temperature. The cascade recognition strategy contains a toehold mediated strand displacement and a double-toehold mediated double strand displacement reaction, thus enable the high ability to discern point mutation of target. The discrimination factor of the model target is between 45 and 109, with the medium of 70. This strategy is homogeneous, easy operation, enzyme-free, isothermal, and can be easily adapted to high-throughput devices without the need of designing complicated instruments.