Abstract: As antibiotic pollution continues to worsen, the dispersal capacity of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) has significantly increased, further enhancing their spread in both environmental and clinical settings and posing a serious threat to public health. Due to the susceptibility of ARGs to degradation, preserving the integrity and biological activity of environmental samples is challenging. It is critically needed to explore potential in-situ detection technologies for environmental ARGs. We review traditional detection methods for ARGs and compare the characteristics of isothermal amplification techniques (ITA), aiming to select an efficient ITA mode and explore its potential application in portable ARGs detection. We further introduce signal transduction systems compatible with ARGs detection, analyze the types and characteristics of biosensors, focusing on the material composition, structural features, and surface functional modifications of upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), elucidate their applications in nucleic acid detection, and prospect their future development in ARGs detection.

Key words: antibiotic resistance genes, amplification mode, upconversion nanoparticles, signal conduction, portable detection