Preliminary evidences of the presence of extracellular DNA single stranded forms in soil

PLoS One. 2020 Jan 7;15(1):e0227296. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0227296. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

The relevance of extracellular DNA (eDNA) in the soil ecosystem is becoming more and more evident to the scientific community by the progressive discovery of functions accompanying to natural gene transformation. However, despite the increased number of published articles dedicated to eDNA in soil, so far only few are focused on its single stranded form (eDNAss). The present paper is the first to investigate the quantitative relevance of eDNAss in the total soil eDNA pool, discriminating between its linear (eDNAssl) and circular (eDNAssc) forms and the respective weakly (wa) and tightly (ta) adsorbed fractions. The results showed the prevalence of eDNAss and its linear form in both the total soil eDNA pool and its wa and ta fractions. Both of the eDNAss fractions (linear and circular) were characterized by small fragments.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • DNA, Circular / isolation & purification*
  • DNA, Environmental / isolation & purification*
  • DNA, Single-Stranded / isolation & purification*
  • Italy
  • Soil / chemistry*

Substances

  • DNA, Circular
  • DNA, Environmental
  • DNA, Single-Stranded
  • Soil

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the RICATEN 19, University of Florence which was assigned to GP. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.