Insight into Rapid DNA-Specific Identification of Animal Origin Based on FTIR Analysis: A Case Study

In this study, a methodology has been proposed to identify the origin of animal DNA, employing high throughput extension accessory Fourier transform infrared (HT-FTIR) spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics. Important discriminatory characteristics were identified in the FTIR spectral peaks of 51 standard DNA samples (25 from bovine and 26 from fish origins), including 1710, 1659, 1608, 1531, 1404, 1375, 1248, 1091, 1060, and 966 cm-1. In particular, the bands at 1708 and 1668 cm-1 were higher in fish DNA than in bovine DNA, while the reverse was true for the band at 1530 cm-1 was shown the opposite result. It was also found that the PO₂- Vas/Vs ratio (1238/1094 cm-1) was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in bovine DNA than in fish DNA. These discriminatory characteristics were further revealed to be closely related to the base content and base sequences of different samples. Multivariate analyses, such as principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were conducted, and both the sensitivity and specificity values of PLS-DA model were one. This methodology has been further validated by 20 meat tissue samples (4 from bovine, 5 from ovine, 5 from porcine, and 6 from fish origins), and these were successfully differentiated. This case study demonstrated that FTIR spectroscopy coupled with PLS-DA discriminant model could provide a rapid, sensitive, and reliable approach for the identification of DNA of animal origin. This methodology could be widely applied in food, feed, forensic science, and archaeology studies.