Method
DNA signatures for detecting genetic engineering in bacteria
-
* Corresponding author: Jonathan E Allen allen99@llnl.gov
Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
Genome Biology 2008, 9:R56 doi:10.1186/gb-2008-9-3-r56
Published: 18 March 2008Abstract
Using newly designed computational tools we show that, despite substantial shared sequences between natural plasmids and artificial vector sequences, a robust set of DNA oligomers can be identified that can differentiate artificial vector sequences from all available background viral and bacterial genomes and natural plasmids. We predict that these tools can achieve very high sensitivity and specificity rates for detecting new unsequenced vectors in microarray-based bioassays. Such DNA signatures could be important in detecting genetically engineered bacteria in environmental samples.