Effect of 0.01 g cm⁻³ aerogel on PCR-based human DNA detection

Abstract

DNA analysis was performed by PCR followed by agarose gel electrophoresis in order to examine the method’s effectiveness for the human-cell contamination of returned samples in an astrobiology project (the Tanpopo mission). The effect of aerogel fragments on cell-derived DNA detection was investigated by focusing on Alu elements—primate-specific short interspersed sequences. A human cell-contaminated model of aerogel was prepared, and as a result, ca. 240 cells attached to the hydrophobic aerogel fragments were detected. No false positive was measured, indicating that our method is useful for evaluating the human contamination of aerogel returned from the Tanpopo mission.