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Submission + - SPAM: DNA pulled from thin air identifies nearby animals 1

Submitted by Hmmmmmm on Thursday January 06, 2022 @11:46PM

Hmmmmmm writes: DNA is everywhere, even in the air. That's no surprise to anyone who suffers allergies from pollen or cat dander. But two research groups have now independently shown the atmosphere can contain detectable amounts of DNA from many kinds of animals. Their preprints, posted on bioRxiv last week, suggest sampling air may enable a faster, cheaper way to survey creatures in ecosystems.

Earlier this year, Elizabeth Clare, a molecular ecologist now at York University, reported in PeerJ that eDNA from naked mole rats could be detected in air samples taken in the laboratory. To find out whether animal eDNA could be detected outdoors, she and colleagues from Queen Mary University of London went to a zoo: There, the species are known and absent from the surrounding landscape, so the team could determine the source of airborne eDNA they found. In December 2020, Clare set up vacuum pumps with filters in 20 locations in Hamerton Zoo Park and let each run for 30 minutes.

Clare collected 72 air samples from both outside and inside zoo buildings. She used polymerase chain reaction to amplify the scant genetic fragments left on the filters into enough DNA for sequencing. "We had to take a leap of faith that it was there because it wasn't something you can measure," she says. After sequencing the eDNA, she matched the snippets to known sequences in a database. The team identified 17 species kept at the zoo and others living near and around it, such as hedgehogs and deer. Some zoo animal DNA was found nearly 300 meters from the animals' enclosures. She also detected airborne DNA likely from the meat of chicken, pig, cow, and horse fed to captive predators indoors. All told, the team detected 25 species of mammals and birds.

Airborne DNA may help reveal the presence of otherwise hard to detect animals, such as those in dry environments, burrows, or caves, and those that fly out of sight of wildlife cameras, like some birds, Lockwood says.
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