Recent trends in SELEX technique and its application to food safety monitoring

Jingjing Wu, Yingyue Zhu, Feng Xue, Zhanlong Mei, Li Yao, Xin Wang, Lei Zheng, Jian Liu, Guodong Liu, Chifang Peng, Wei Chen

The method referred to as "systemic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment" (SELEX) was introduced in 1990 and ever since has become an important tool for the identification and screening of aptamers. Such nucleic acids can recognize and bind to their corresponding targets (analytes) with high selectivity and affinity, and aptamers therefore have become attractive alternatives to traditional antibodies not the least because they are much more stable. Meanwhile, they have found numerous applications in different fields including food quality and safety monitoring. This review first gives an introduction into the selection process and to the evolution of SELEX, then covers applications of aptamers in the surveillance of food safety (with subsections on absorptiometric, electrochemical, fluorescent and other methods), and then gives conclusions and perspectives. The SELEX method excels by its features of in vitro, high throughput and ease of operation. This review contains 86 references.