Forensic microbial system for high-resolution object provenance

Qian, J.; Lu, Z.-x.; Mancuso, C. P.; Jhuang, H.-Y.; Barajas-Ornelas, R. d. C.; Boswell, S.; Ramirez-Guadiana, F. H.; Jones, V.; Sonti, A.; Sedlack, K.; Artzi, L.; Jung, G.; Arammash, M.; Melfi, M.; Lyon, L.; Owen, S. V.; Baym, M.; Khalil, A. S.; Silver, P. A.; Rudner, D.; Springer, M.

doi:10.1101/2020.03.14.990804

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.03.14.990804

Forensic microbial system for high-resolution object provenance

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Abstract

Mapping where an object has been is a fundamental challenge for human health, commerce, and food safety. Location-specific microbes offers the potential to cheaply and sensitively determine object provenance. We created a synthetic, scalable microbial spore system that identifies object provenance in under one hour at meter-scale resolution and near single spore sensitivity, and that can be safely introduced into and recovered from the environment. This system solves the key challenges in object provenance: persistence in the environment, scalability, rapid and facile decoding, and biocontainment. Our system is compatible with SHERLOCK, facilitating its implementation in a wide range of applications.

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Qian, J., Lu, Z.-x., Mancuso, C. P., Jhuang, H.-Y., Barajas-Ornelas, R. d. C., Boswell, S., Ramirez-Guadiana, F. H., Jones, V., Sonti, A., Sedlack, K., Artzi, L., Jung, G., Arammash, M., Melfi, M., Lyon, L., Owen, S. V., Baym, M., Khalil, A. S., Silver, P. A., Rudner, D., Springer, M.. 2020-03-16. Forensic microbial system for high-resolution object provenance. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.14.990804

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