title: Microbial DNA profiling by multiplex terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism for forensic comparison of soil and the influence of sample condition.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate: (i) the impact of air-drying on bacterial, archaeal and fungal soil DNA profiles and (ii) the potential use of multiplex-terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (M-TRFLP) as a tool for forensic comparison of soil.
  
  
  RESULTS
  An M-TRFLP approach was used to profile bacterial, archaeal and fungal DNA profiles from five different soil sites. Air-drying soil significantly reduced the quantity of DNA but the number of operational taxanomic units (OTU) was unaffected. The impact of air-drying on soil DNA profiles was dependent on soil site and microbial primers. Fungal profiles were altered the least by air-drying. For prokaryotic profiles, air-drying altered the relative similarity/dissimilarity between soil sites. The M-TRFLP approach was more discriminatory compared with soil colour and single-taxa profiling, but did not significantly improve resolution between two similar soils.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Of those tested, soil fungi were potentially the more robust target for application to soil forensic studies as they were altered less by air-drying and provided clear discrimination of soils from different sites. The M-TRFLP method demonstrated potential to achieve greater resolution, discriminating the soil sites based on both bacterial and fungal components.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Soil DNA profiling has potential as a forensic tool, but sample condition and the appropriate selection of microbial target taxa must be considered.
authors.affiliation: The Macaulay Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, UK. l.macdonald@macaulay.ac.uk
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Macdonald
authors.forename: B K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Brewer
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Dawson
mesh_terms: D003116:Color; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000379:methods*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics*; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D044707:Forensic Sciences / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000592:standards
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004271:DNA, Fungal