Identification of Fusarium in Gerbera using Augmented Ruthenium Red Based Biosensor
by Kanan Nozaki
Category: STEM
Abstract – Farmers often encounter significant financial losses due to pathogenic diseases. Fusarium is known for damaging plants by secreting polygalacturonase, which causes cell wall degradation. This paper reports the identification of polygalacturonase in Fusarium through the fabrication of the ruthenium red-based biosensor. The augmented ruthenium red-based biosensor uses the PGA-RR complex and allows physical experimentation in the actual field. Multiple polygalacturonase enzymes were tested with varying concentrations and the biosensor detected the reflected light from those enzymes using a spectral sensor. Two experiments were conducted: one with the use of chromatography paper and the other without it. The experiments suggested that the biosensors were capable of detecting the enzymes. As the concentration of the enzymes increased, the amount of reflected light at various wavelengths increased. This finding is significant because this new prototype offers possible ways of detecting these pathogenic diseases and, meanwhile, advancing the field of bioengineering and biotechnology.