Researchers can now collect and sequence DNA from the air -- Science & Technology -- Sott.net

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 20:27 UTC
© ShutterstockWe leave DNA all over the place, including in the air, and for the first time, researchers have collected animal DNA from mere air samples, according to a new study.
The DNA that living things, human and otherwise, shed into the environment is called environmental DNA (eDNA). Collecting eDNA from water to learn about the species living there has become fairly common, but until now, no one had attempted to collect animal eDNA from the air.
"What we wanted to know was whether we could filter eDNA from the air to track the presence of terrestrial animals," study author Elizabeth Clare, an ecologist at Queen Mary University of London, said in a video abstract for the study, published Mar. 31 in the journal PeerJ. "We were interested in whether we could use this 'airDNA' as a way to assess what species were present in a burrow or a cave where we could not easily see or capture them," she added.

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