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Soot and charcoal as reservoirs of extracellular DNA

Jelavić, Stanislav ; Thygesen, Lisbeth G. ; Magnin, Valérie ; Findling, Nathaniel ; Müller, Sascha ; Meklesh, Viktoriia LU and Sand, Karina K. (2022) In Peer Community Journal 2.
Abstract

The vast potential of using sediment adsorbed DNA as a window to past and present biodiversity rely on the ability of solid surfaces to adsorb environmental DNA. However, a comprehensive insight into DNA adsorption at surfaces in general is lacking. Soot and charcoal are carbonaceous materials widespread in the environment where they read-ily can come in contact with extracellular DNA shed from organisms. Using batch ad-sorption, we measured DNA adsorption capacity at soot and charcoal as a function of solution composition, time and DNA length. We observed that the adsorption capacity for DNA is highest at low pH, that it increases with solution concentration and cation valency and that the activation energy for DNA adsorption at both... (More)

The vast potential of using sediment adsorbed DNA as a window to past and present biodiversity rely on the ability of solid surfaces to adsorb environmental DNA. However, a comprehensive insight into DNA adsorption at surfaces in general is lacking. Soot and charcoal are carbonaceous materials widespread in the environment where they read-ily can come in contact with extracellular DNA shed from organisms. Using batch ad-sorption, we measured DNA adsorption capacity at soot and charcoal as a function of solution composition, time and DNA length. We observed that the adsorption capacity for DNA is highest at low pH, that it increases with solution concentration and cation valency and that the activation energy for DNA adsorption at both soot and charcoal is ~50 kJmol-1, suggesting strong binding. We demonstrate how the interaction between DNA and soot and charcoal partly occurs via terminal base pairs, suggesting that, besides electrostatic forces, hydrophobic interactions play an important role in binding. The large adsorption capacities and strong binding of DNA to soot and charcoal are features important for eDNA research and provide a motivation for use of carbonaceous materials from, e.g., anthropogenic pollution or wildfire as sources of biodiversity information.

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publication status
published
subject
in
Peer Community Journal
volume
2
article number
e80
publisher
Peer Community in
external identifiers
  • scopus:85197181455
ISSN
2804-3871
DOI
10.24072/pcjournal.207
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
8c5aa1f5-e100-4e64-bcbb-30d29047e521
date added to LUP
2025-02-12 14:06:37
date last changed
2025-04-04 14:30:23
@article{8c5aa1f5-e100-4e64-bcbb-30d29047e521,
  abstract     = {{<p>The vast potential of using sediment adsorbed DNA as a window to past and present biodiversity rely on the ability of solid surfaces to adsorb environmental DNA. However, a comprehensive insight into DNA adsorption at surfaces in general is lacking. Soot and charcoal are carbonaceous materials widespread in the environment where they read-ily can come in contact with extracellular DNA shed from organisms. Using batch ad-sorption, we measured DNA adsorption capacity at soot and charcoal as a function of solution composition, time and DNA length. We observed that the adsorption capacity for DNA is highest at low pH, that it increases with solution concentration and cation valency and that the activation energy for DNA adsorption at both soot and charcoal is ~50 kJmol<sup>-1</sup>, suggesting strong binding. We demonstrate how the interaction between DNA and soot and charcoal partly occurs via terminal base pairs, suggesting that, besides electrostatic forces, hydrophobic interactions play an important role in binding. The large adsorption capacities and strong binding of DNA to soot and charcoal are features important for eDNA research and provide a motivation for use of carbonaceous materials from, e.g., anthropogenic pollution or wildfire as sources of biodiversity information.</p>}},
  author       = {{Jelavić, Stanislav and Thygesen, Lisbeth G. and Magnin, Valérie and Findling, Nathaniel and Müller, Sascha and Meklesh, Viktoriia and Sand, Karina K.}},
  issn         = {{2804-3871}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Peer Community in}},
  series       = {{Peer Community Journal}},
  title        = {{Soot and charcoal as reservoirs of extracellular DNA}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.24072/pcjournal.207}},
  doi          = {{10.24072/pcjournal.207}},
  volume       = {{2}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}