Potential for cross-contamination of diatom DNA samples when using toothbrushes

By

Kelly, Martyn G.
Jones, Tim
Walsh, Kerry

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2021-5-17

Original Publication

Metabarcoding and metagenomics

Volume

5

Pages

1--7

Subjects

Diatoms , Ecological assessment , metabarcoding , Water Framework Directive

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers 2017-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/mbmg.5.66503

 

Abstract

The use of toothbrushes and similar devices for sampling diatoms from hard surfaces is a well-established approach. Toothbrushes are routinely cleaned and reused when sampling for analysis by light microscopy. This paper looks at the scale of contamination encountered when this technique is used to sample diatoms for metabarcoding analyses, as well as at the scale of contamination to be expected if stream, rather than distilled water, is used to wash diatoms from stones. Although some contamination attributable to toothbrushes was detected, read numbers were low and had no effect on index calculation or ecological status estimates. However, if the primary focus of a study is to thoroughly document diversity in a sample, then even this small level of contamination may be unacceptable and more stringent measures may be required.