(1) Adele Mennerat and Ben Sheldon in their review on PCR preparation effectiveness titled “How to Deal with PCR Contamination in Molecular Microbial Ecology.” (2014) explain the influence of Contaminants present within PCR primer reagents, influences of such contaminants and decontamination approaches to lessen the impact and improve data quality. (2) Mennerat and Sheldon provide evidence that enzymatic treatment does reduce contamination levels, but has the potential for adverse influence on microbial richness. (3) The purpose of this study is to provide analysis on potential decontamination methods for the Priming process, and test their influence on two enzymes (DNase 1 and Sau3AI) to determine if the ability to replicate and interpret the data collected from DNA amplification is improved or lessened. (4) Mennerat and Sheldon have developed an academic background in Biological laboratory practices, as well as other areas of study such as Zoology.
