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DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANISMS PANEL, VERSION
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Part 2: Environmental Panel Organisms
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2.1
Soil Testing
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Airborne soil particles may constitute a significant challenge to assays for analysis of aerosol collection
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filters and/or liquids. Soils contain genomic materials or nucleic acid fragments of countless
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archaebacterial, bacterial, and eukaryotic organisms. Some of the more common soil organisms can be
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anticipated. Soils may also contain unanticipated inhibitors that interfere with sample processing and
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detection.
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Therefore, determining the effect of a variety of representative soils on an assay is an important first
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step in establishing the specificity and robustness of an assay in the presence of interfering compounds.
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To challenge assay specificity, use the assay to evaluate each regional soil type *† for positive responses.
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There is no consensus on a course of action if a positive response is detected. Therefore, it is incumbent
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on the method developer to determine the appropriate course of action if a positive response is
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detected.
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† See section 2.2 “Bioinformatics Analysis” on probing all available data bases including those that
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contain soil metagenome sequences generated from specific regions of operations (if available) for
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In‐Silico Analysis
and further validation of the signature sequences.
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