Development of quantitative analysis of ovine products by droplet digital PCR

A quantitative method based on the droplet digital polymerase chain reaction(dd PCR) technique was developed to determine the weight of ovine in meat products. By using the dd PCR method,the relationships between the meat weight and DNA weight and between the DNA weight and DNA copy number were both close to linear within the dynamic range. The DNA weight was utilized as an intermediate value to establish the following formulae for calculating the original meat weight from the DNA copy number:Movine=0.03C+0.69. By examining the mixed meat samples of known composition,the final quantitative results were similar to the true meat weights,and the maximum content deviation was 1.52%. Analysis of commercial samples showed that dd PCR quantification system could determine the proportion and quantification of ovine and had a good practicability. Quantitative analysis indicated that dd PCR was highly precise in quantifying ovine in meat products and had the potential to be used in routine analysis and quality meat adulteration of various species.