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This photo shows dingoes at Hamerton Zoo in the UK curious about air sampling equipment
.
The air in zoos is full of smells ranging from fish used as feed to the dung of herbivores, but now we know that the air is also full of the DNA of the animals that live there
.
In the Jan.
"Capturing airborne environmental DNA from vertebrates makes it possible to detect animals that we cannot even see," says researcher Kristine Bohmann, who led the team at the University of Copenhagen
.
Terrestrial animals can be monitored in many ways: directly through cameras and live observations, or indirectly through what they leave behind, such as footprints or droppings
.
The disadvantage of these methods is the need for intensive field work and the need for animals to be present
"Early in my career, I traveled to Madagascar hoping to see a lot of lemurs
.
But in reality, I rarely saw them
"It's really, really difficult to monitor DNA in the air compared to what people find in rivers and lakes, because the DNA in the air seems to be super-diluted," said lead researcher Elizabeth Clare of the Queen Mary University of London research team
.
"But our zoo studies haven't failed with different samples, genes, locations, and experimental approaches
Bohmann and Clare drew heavily from their past studies of monitoring wildlife by collecting other samples containing DNA shed by animals
.
Known as "environmental DNA" or eDNA, this is a well-established technique most commonly used to monitor aquatic life by sequencing eDNA in water samples
"The air surrounds everything, and we wanted to optimize the real detection of animal DNA without contaminating the samples," Bohmann said.
"
Each research team conducted their studies at the local zoo, collecting samples in different parts of the zoo, including in walled enclosures such as tropical houses and indoor stables, and in outdoor enclosures in the open air
.
"To collect the eDNA in the air, we used a fan, like the one you use to cool a computer, and attached a filter to the fan
Fans draw in air from the zoo and the surrounding environment, which may contain genetic material from a variety of sources, such as breath, saliva, fur or feces, although researchers have yet to pinpoint the exact source
.
"It can be anything that can fly in the air and be small enough to continue to float in the air
"It's a leap of faith because when you're dealing with routine tissue or even aquatic DNA samples, you can measure how much DNA you have, but those samples are forensically tiny amounts of DNA we're dealing with
.
In many cases, when We can't measure DNA when we're only sampling for a few minutes, so we have to jump to the next stage of PCR, where we're going to find out if there's DNA
in it.
When we're sampling for hours, we'll get more, but that's a trade-off
.
"
In each study, the researchers found animals in and near the zoo
.
The team, from Queen Mary University of London, detected DNA from 25 species of mammals and birds, and even detected DNA from the endangered Eurasian hedgehog in the UK
.
Bohmann's team at the University of Copenhagen discovered 49 species of non-human vertebrates, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish
.
These include zoo animals such as okapi and armadillos, even guppies in ponds in tropical houses, native animals such as squirrels, and pest animals such as brown mice and house mice
.
In addition, they found fish in zoos that were used as feed for other animals
.
Both teams took extensive steps to check their samples for contamination, including by DNA already in the lab
.
By choosing the zoo as the location for their study, the researchers knew where a large number of non-native species were located, so they could tell the difference between real signals and pollutants
.
"We wanted to go to the farm, but if you take DNA from a cow, you have to ask: 'Is this cow here, or is it 100 miles away, or is it in someone's lunch? But with the zoo as a model, besides the zoo Tigers, I have no other way to test tiger DNA
.
This allows us to really test the detection rate," Clare said
.
"Our labs are all developing and applying new tools, so maybe it's not surprising that we're coming up with the same idea at the same time
.
"
However, it is no coincidence that the two research groups, Bohmann and Clare, are simultaneously publishing in the journal Current Biology
.
After seeing each other's articles on a preprint server, the two groups decided to jointly contribute to the journal
.
Clare said: “We decided to take a gamble and we didn’t want to compete on this project
.
In fact, it was a pretty crazy idea and we’d better have independent confirmation that it works
.
Both teams are very eager to see to the development of this technology
.
”
###
University of Copenhagen: Current Biology, Lyngaard et al.
“Airborne environmental DNA for terrestrial vertebrate community monitoring,” https:// DOI: 10.
1016 /j.
cub.
2021.
12.
014
Queen Mary University: Current Biology, Clare et al.
“Measuring biodiversity from DNA in the air,” https:// DOI: 10.
1016 /j.
cub.
2021.
11.
064
