Environmental DNA, or e-DNA, can now find fish in water after they’ve swum away, detect an invasive species before it overtakes an ecosystem and spot harmful algae before it blooms.
In recent years, scientists have been taking genetic material found in soils, seas and sediments to capture a snapshot of a single organism or an entire ecosystem through genetic sequencing — a kind of 23andMe for the planet.
“When you say e-DNA is having its moment, you are correct,” said Michael Schwartz, a senior scientist with the U.S Forest Service at the Rocky Mountain Research Station. “It is so powerful because it’s so cost-effective — it’s about 10 times more cost-effective than some of the field methods we were traditionally using.”
E-DNA is closing that knowledge gap. Recent studies show that within a single sample, DNA from entire communities across taxonomic groups can be analyzed simultaneously — like a polaroid of genes suspended in time. “On one end of the spectrum, we have what is called quantitative PCR, or qPCR — that technology is exquisitely sensitive for detecting very few copies of the organism,” said Schwartz. QPCR is especially useful when it comes to detecting invasive species in a given ecosystem, he said. “Think about like a New Zealand snail or a zebra mussel or a brook trout. We might need to find the one brook trout that is in a stream because we want to take action to prevent it from just exploding.
Part of the work Schwartz and others are doing is creating a living library of data — samples that they can test now and into the future, freezing moments in time through the slime, cells and waste all organisms slough off and leave behind.
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