title: DNA signatures for detecting genetic engineering in bacteria.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Livermore, CA 94550, USA. allen99@llnl.gov
authors.forename: Jonathan E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Shea N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: Tom R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Slezak
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D005818:Genetic Engineering; D005822:Genetic Vectors / Q000235:genetics*; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods*