The potential of aerosol eDNA sampling for the characterisation of commercial seed lots

摘要: Seed shipments, silos and storage houses often contain weed seeds or of restricted crops such as undeclared genetically modified (GM) varieties. Random sub-sampling is the favoured approach to detect unwanted biological materials in seed lots but prohibitively expensive else ineffective for huge volumes moved commercial operations. This study uses maize cowpea admixtures an exemplar evaluate feasibility using aerosol sampling “seed dust” alternative sub-sampling. In initial calibration phase, qPCR rbcL barcode followed by high-resolution melting (HRM) a DNA titration series revealed strong linear relationship between mix composition HRM profiles. However, became skewed when flour mixes were used build titration, implying extraction bias favouring cowpea. Aerosol samples dust above mixed then collected along vertical lateral axes. Aerosols characterised light microscopy, qPCR-HRM next-generation sequencing (Illumina MiSeq). Both molecular approaches again showed this time reverse direction samples. Microscopic examination sample suggested divergence could be attributed differences abundance airborne starch particles. Despite bias, it was nevertheless possible estimate relative each species minibarcodes. these results we explore lot characterisation.