corn
Corn (Zea mays), one of the world's most important cereal crops, is a tall grass domesticated from wild teosinte in southern Mexico approximately 9,000 years ago. It serves as a pivotal model organism and agricultural subject in plant science, with research spanning its complex genetics, reproductive biology, and domestication history. Understanding corn's molecular pathways, yield mechanisms, and stress responses has broad implications for crop improvement and global food security.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-05-05
Researchers created a new ultrasensitive DNA-based biosensor that can detect zearalenone, a harmful fungal toxin commonly found in corn, with higher accuracy and less complexity than current methods. The approach uses two coordinated DNA molecular machines to amplify detection signals, overcoming major limitations of existing food-safety tests.
Zearalenone (ZEN) is a fungal mycotoxin frequently found in corn that can impair liver and kidney function and potentially induce carcinogenesis.
Existing ZEN detection methods suffer from high cost, complex workflows, limited sensitivity, and poor specificity — creating a clear gap this research addresses.
The new biosensor combines a blocked Primer Exchange Reaction (PER) dumbbell-hairpin structure with a Catalytic Hairpin Assembly (CHA) DNA machine to achieve ultrasensitive, highly specific fluorescence-based detection.
