This study investigated the potential to utilize phage-displayed peptides a
s reagents in sensor applications. A library of random 12-mers displayed on
phage was panned against staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB), a causative a
gent of food poisoning. Nine SEE binding phage clones were isolated, all of
which share the consensus sequence Trp His Lys at their amino terminus. Bi
nding of several of these phage was shown to be inhibited when they were as
sayed in a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) format wit
h synthesized peptide corresponding to the peptide-encoding region of one o
f the clones, Whole phage were labeled with the dye Cy5, and incorporated i
nto fluoroimmunoassays, Labeled phage were able to detect SEE down to a con
centration of 1.4 ng/well in a fluorescence-based immunoassay, When incorpo
rated into an automated fluorescence-based sensing assay, Cy5-labeled phage
bound to probes: coated with SEE generated a robust signal of about 10,000
pA, vs a signal of 1000 pA using a control fiber coated with streptavidin,
These results demonstrate the potential for development of phage-based sen
sor reagents, Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.