Fluorescence and surface enhanced Raman scattering dual-model PCR for the detection of DNA barcoding of Asarum heterotropoides

Abstract

Asarum plants containing many functional substances are widely used in traditional prescriptions and tonics. DNA barcoding is a relatively short specific gene segment in the genome which can be used for species identification purposes. The present work selected RNA transcriber type II intron shear enzyme gene (matK) as the target and developed a novel fluorescence and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) dual-model PCR for the detection of Asarum heterotropoides (AH) in plants. The dual-model method achieved specific AH DNA detection with a limit of detection (LOD) of 10⁻³ ng/µL for the fluorescence signal and 10⁻⁴ ng/µL for the SERS signal in the range of 10⁻⁴−10 ng/µL. Agarose gel electrophoresis results and qPCR results showed the novel method was highly specific for AH detection and only the AH was successfully amplified.