Ultrasensitive detection of pathogenic bacteria by primer exchange reaction coupled with PGM

•This study proposes an innovative approach for highly sensitive and selective detection of pathogenic bacteria based on primer exchange reaction (PER) coupled with a personal glucose meter (PGM).•Under optimal conditions, the experimental results showed the corresponding detection limits as low as 10 CFU/mL with linear ranges 10–107 CFU/mL for the determination of E. coli O157:H7.•The proposed biosensor was used to detect pathogenic bacteria real samples successfully.