Contaminations contaminate common databases
Metadatos
Afficher la notice complèteEditorial
WILEY
Materia
Haemoproteus Haemosporidian parasites PCR contamination Plasmodium Sequence databases
Date
2020Referencia bibliográfica
Bensch S, Inumaru M, Sato Y, et al. Contaminations contaminate common databases. Mol Ecol Resour. 2020;00:1–8. [https://doi.org/10.1111/1755- 0998.13272]
Patrocinador
Swedish Research Council 2017-03937Résumé
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a very powerful method to detect and identify pathogens. The high sensitivity of the method, however, comes with a cost; any
of the millions of artificial DNA copies generated by PCR can serve as a template in
a following experiment. If not identified as contaminations, these may result in erroneous conclusions on the occurrence of the pathogen, thereby inflating estimates
of host range and geographic distribution. In the present paper, we evaluate whether
several published records of avian haemosporidian parasites, in either unusual host
species or geographical regions, might stem from PCR contaminations rather than
novel biological findings. The detailed descriptions of these cases are shedding light
upon the steps in the work process that might lead to PCR contaminations. By increasing the awareness of this problem, it will aid in developing procedures that keep
these to a minimum. The examples in the present paper are from haemosporidians
of birds, however the problem of contaminations and suggested actions should apply
generally to all kinds of PCR-based identifications, not just of parasites and pathogens.