Development of CPE/ssDNA-Based Electrochemical Sensor for the Detection of Leucine to Assess Soil Health

For the first time, the interaction between the amino acid leucine (Leu) and thermally denatured single-stranded (ss) DNA has been demonstrated by applying voltammetry. As a result of interaction, the characteristic peak of ssDNA, due to the oxidation of guanine residues, decreased upon interaction time. The interaction behavior between leucine and ssDNA was also studied with UV-vis spectrophotometry; the obtained results are in good agreement with voltammetric ones. The results of the interaction study were exploited in order to develop a SWV method for the determination of leucine at the ssDNA-modified carbon paste electrode (CPE). Different parameters were tested to optimize the conditions of the determination. The peak of guanine was at around +0.86 V. Linearity was observed in the range of 0.213-4.761 μg/L (r = 0.9990) while LOD equals 0.071 μg/L. The method was applied to a spiked soil sample and gave satisfactory results.