All-Food-Seq (AFS): a quantifiable screen for species in biological samples by deep DNA sequencing.

2013

Background DNA-based methods like PCR efficiently identify and quantify the taxon composition of complex biological materials, but are limited to detecting species targeted by the choice of the primer assay. We show here how untargeted deep sequencing of foodstuff total genomic DNA, followed by bioinformatic analysis of sequence reads, facilitates highly accurate identification of species from all kingdoms of life, at the same time enabling quantitative measurement of the main ingredients and detection of unanticipated food components. Results Sequence data simulation and real-case Illumina sequencing of DNA from reference sausages composed of mammalian (pig, cow, horse, sheep) and avian (c…