New Technology Captures Animal DNA in the Air
It's still new, but it could revolutionize what we know about animal habitats and patterns
Hiya!
So, as brilliant as we humans are, we have a bad habit of dismissing the rest of the animal kingdom. I’ve written a few times that animals, in some ways, are superior to us. Just a couple of months ago, I wrote about how incredible a dog’s sense of smell is.
Let’s just say their nose is basically a superpower. I can’t even fathom having the ability to know who has cancer or Covid just by smelling them. Let alone being capable of smelling up to twelve miles away! However, our intelligence does allow us to create technology that can detect things in the air that we’re not aware of. Even something as small as DNA.
New Technology
Two different studies published in the journal Current Biology’s January edition show scientists’ ability to non-invasively capture animal DNA from the air. The first study was done by graduate student Kristine Bohmann and her team at the University of Copenhagen. The second was completed by lead researcher, and assistant professor of biology at York University, Elizabeth Clare, with researchers at Queen Mary University in London.
Bohmann and her team analyzed three areas around the Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark, while Clare and her UK team worked with air samples from the Hamerton Zoo Park near Cambridge, England. Both used rigged-up air filters to capture tiny particulates in the air. Though we can’t always see them, plenty of particles hitch a ride in the air we breathe.
After a specified amount of time, both teams took the air filters back to their labs then used a sequencer to amplify the DNA captured. The result showed dozens of genetic markers for both captured zoo animals, lone rangers roaming the grounds — such as rats, mice, and hedgehogs — and even the animals brought in to feed the zoo animals.
Bohmann’s team in Copenhagen reported,
“[W]e detected 49 vertebrate species spanning 26 orders and 37 families: 30 mammal, 13 bird, 4 fish, 1 amphibian, and 1 reptile species. These spanned animals kept at the zoo, species occurring in the zoo surroundings, and species used as feed in the zoo.”
While the second team studying the Hamerton Zoo in England found,
Air samples contained DNA from 25 species of mammals and birds, including 17 known terrestrial resident zoo species. We also identified food items from air sampled in enclosures and detected taxa native to the local area, including the Eurasian hedgehog, endangered in the United Kingdom.
That’s a lot of animals. Makes you wonder what else we might find.
Some people have wondered if this technology could be adapted to track an individual’s DNA in the air. For perhaps, missing persons or criminals. Experts agree that while theoretically possible, it’s not probable. Right now, collecting and analyzing genetic materials such as hair and skin left behind on surfaces is faster. It would take too long to collect enough DNA particulates from the air, and eliminate all DNA captured except for the specific one you’re looking for.
Why it Matters
Even though it probably won’t be applied to humans, biologists involved in wildlife preservation, think this is still exciting news. Scientists usually track animals to learn about their behaviors, migration patterns, and mating habits. Particularly, the animals known to shy away from humans — which makes learning about them more difficult.
Scientists have come up with a myriad of techniques to track animals over the millennia ranging from following footprints to setting up camera traps in the hopes the preferred animal might walk in front of it. But these approaches leave much to be desired. Especially when the animal being tracked travels miles each day, and it can feel nearly impossible to keep up.
Similar non-invasive DNA capturing methods have already been used to track fish and other marine life in rivers and oceans, but we’ve struggled to follow animals on land until now.
Michael Schwartz, a senior scientist at the US Forest Service’s National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation in Missoula, Montana, told WIRED magazine,
“If we want to restore ecosystems, we need to understand how our conservation actions influence threatened and endangered species. But to do that we need to be able to detect even the rarest, shyest, and most cryptic species. We need new technologies, like the ability to detect airborne environmental DNA.”
If we don’t know where animals, especially the endangered ones, live, breed, or migrate, then we can’t protect those areas from human development. Which we need to do to preserve Earth’s biodiversity. Something which is even more vital given the arrival of global warming.
Both groups who conducted the study showed promising results, but the technology is still new, which means it’s not perfect. For instance, weather conditions could impact how well it works.
Wind and rain might result in less DNA captured or could clear the air of the samples. We know the wind can carry sand in Africa across the Atlantic ocean to the Amazon in South America. How far might it take DNA? Not to mention any impact the sun, or solar radiation, has on the DNA — does the sun degrade it? If so, how fast does it happen?
Perspective Shift
We know a lot, but there’s still much to learn about the animals we share this planet with. And as the climate changes, it’ll be even more important to know the migration patterns and movements of wildlife. This new technology allows us to capture the “footprint” of animals in the air even when it’s been a day or two since they were at the location.
Humans have forced natural ecosystems to adjust as we dominated the world for the last few centuries. Now climate change reminds us that we aren’t the only species on the planet. This is a non-invasive way to learn about the animal kingdom and find our place within it, rather than allowing humans to spread unchecked.
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