title: Recent trends in SELEX technique and its application to food safety monitoring.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Anhui Provincial Key Lab of Functional Materials & Devices, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Changshu Institute of Technology, Changshu 215500, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yingyue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Anhui Provincial Key Lab of Functional Materials & Devices, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Anhui Provincial Key Lab of Functional Materials & Devices, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhanlong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Mei
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Anhui Provincial Key Lab of Functional Materials & Devices, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Anhui Provincial Key Lab of Functional Materials & Devices, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Medical Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Anhui Provincial Key Lab of Functional Materials & Devices, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58108, USA.
authors.forename: Guodong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School Food Science & Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chifang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Anhui Provincial Key Lab of Functional Materials & Devices, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
keywords: Aptamer; Biosensor; Food safety; Rapid detection; SELEX