• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.1561-1569
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• 2006

Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) is one of the most frequently used methods for analysis of soil microbial community structure. Unbiased PCR amplification of target DNA templates is crucial for efficient detection of multiple microbial populations mixed in soil. In this study, DGGE profiles were compared using different pairs of primers targeting different hypervariable regions of thirteen representative soil bacteria and clones. The primer set (1070f-1392r) for the E. coli numbering 1,071-1,391 region could not resolve all the 16S rDNA fragments of the representative bacteria and clones, and moreover, yielded spurious bands in DGGE profiles. For the E. coli numbering 353-514 region, various forward primers were designed to investigate the efficiency of PCR amplification. A degenerate forward primer (F357IW) often yielded multiple bands for a certain single 16S rDNA fragment in DGGE analysis, whereas nondegenerate primers (338f, F338T2, F338I2) differentially amplified each of the fragments in the mixture according to the position and the number of primer-template mismatches. A forward primer (F352T) designed to have one internal mismatch commonly with all the thirteen 16S rDNA fragments efficiently produced and separated all the target DNA bands with similar intensities in the DGGE profiles. This primer set F352T-519r consistently yielded the best DGGE banding profiles when tested with various soil samples. Touchdown PCR intensified the uneven amplification, and lowering the annealing temperature had no significant effect on the DGGE profiles. These results showed that PCR amplification bias could be much improved by properly designing primers for use in fingerprinting soil bacterial communities with the DGGE technique.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1118-1123
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• 2009

Event-specific real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection method for genetically modified (GM) maize MIR604 was developed based on integration junction sequences between the host plant genome and the integrated transgene. In this study, 2 primer pairs and probes were designed for specific amplification of 100 and 111 bp DNA fragments from the zSSIIb gene (the maize endogenous reference gene) and MIR604. The quantitative method was validated using 3 certified reference materials (CRMs) with levels of 0.1, 1, and 10% MIR604. The method was also assayed with 14 different plants and other GM maize. No amplification signal was observed in real-time PCR assays with any of the species tested other than MIR604 maize. As a result, the bias from the true value and the relative deviation for MIR604 was within the range from 0 to 9%. Precision, expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD), varied from 2.7 to 10% for MIR604. Limits of detections (LODs) of qualitative and quantitative methods were all 0.1%. These results indicated that the event-specific quantitative PCR detection system for MIR604 is accurate and useful.

• ALGAE
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.57-70
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• 2019

DNA metabarcoding is currently used for large-scale taxonomic identification to understand the community composition in various marine ecosystems. However, before being widely used in this emerging field, this experimental and analytic approach still has several technical challenges to overcome, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) bias, and lack of well-established metabarcoding markers, a task which is difficult but not impossible to achieve. In this study, we present an adapted PCR-free small-organelles enriched metagenomics (SoEM) method for marine biodiversity assessment. To avoid PCR bias and random artefacts, we extracted target DNA sequences without PCR amplification from marine environmental samples enriched with small organelles including mitochondria and plastids because their genome sequences provide a valuable source of molecular markers for phylogenetic analysis. To experimentally enrich small organelles, we performed subcellular fractionation using modified differential centrifugation for marine environmental DNA samples. To validate our SoEM method, two marine environmental samples from the coastal waters were tested the taxonomic capturing capacity against that of traditional DNA metabarcoding method. Results showed that, regardless of taxonomic levels, at least 3-fold greater numbers of taxa were identified in our SoEM method, compared to those identified by the conventional multi-locus DNA metabarcoding method. The SoEM method is thus effective and accurate for identifying taxonomic diversity and presents a useful alternative approach for evaluating biodiversity in the marine environment.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.154-158
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• 1999

The arginine residue at position 243 (Arg 243) of the yeast transcription factor, Gcn4p, is invariably conserved among bZIP transcription factors. Using site-directed oligonucleotide saturation mutagenesis involving two-step polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, random mutations were successfully introduced at the codon of 243 in the basic domain of Gcn4p. This mutant library was transformed ito Gcn4p defective yeast strain and selected for the transcriptionally active colonies. All colonies which were transcriptionally active had arginines in the codon 243. In this study, the strand preference by Taq polymerase during mutagenesis was also tested. Oligonucleotides were specially designed to test whether or not the polymerase was preferred using the strand as a template. A population of randomly mutated products were cloned into an appropriate vector and characterized by DNA sequencing analysis. Saturation mutagenesis which was performed efficiently by this method revealed a strong bias in terms of strand preference of Taq polymerase by an approximate ratio of 3 to 1 in this study.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.359-366
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• 2012

Nanopore DNA sequencing is an emerging and promising technique that can potentially realize the goal of a low-cost and high-throughput method for analyzing human genome. Especially, solid-state nanopores have relatively high mechanical stability, simple surface modification, and facile fabrication process without the need for labeling or amplification of PCR (polymerized chain reaction) in DNA sequencing. For these advantages of solid-sate nanopores, the use of solid-state nanopores has been extensively considered for developing a next generation DNA sequencing technology. Solid-state nanopore sequencing technique can determine and count charged molecules such as single-stranded DNA, double-stranded DNA, or RNA when they are driven to pass through a membrane nanopore between two electrolytes of cis-trans chambers with applied bias voltage by measuring the ionic current which varies due to the existence of the charged particles in the nanopore. Recently, many researchers have suggested that nanopore-based sensors can be competitive with other third-generation DNA sequencing technologies, and may be able to rapidly and reliably sequence the human genome for under $1,000.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2005

We have mined each of the five A. thaliana chromosomes for the presence of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and developed custom perl scripts to examine their distribution and abundance in relation to genomic position, local G/C content and location within and around transcribed sequences. The distribution of repeats and G/C content with respect to genomic regions (exons, UTRs, introns, intergenic regions and proximity to expressed genes) are shown. SSRs show a non-random distribution across the genome and a strong association within and around transcribed sequences, while G/C density is associated specifically with the coding portions of transcribed sequences. SSR motif repeat number shows a high degree of variation for each SSR type and a high degree of motif sequence bias reflecting local genome sequence composition. PCR primers suitable for the amplification of identified SSRs have been designed where possible, and are available for further studies.