From University of Florida News Page, Eric Hamilton
A single scoop of water from an Irish river revealed evidence not only of Ireland’s only frog species — as expected — but also signs of the dreaded B. dendrobatidis fungus, marking the first time this devastating amphibian disease has been spotted in the country and exposing a previously unknown risk to Ireland’s frog population.
That is the power of environmental DNA, or eDNA, as revealed in new research led by University of Florida biologist David Duffy, Ph.D., which traced the DNA harbored by the Avoca River from its origin in the Wicklow Mountains to where it spills into the Irish Sea.
With a single analysis of a sample of water, soil or air, scientists can identify the DNA of virtually any species that has passed near an area. The technology has the potential to massively simplify typically labor-intensive conservation efforts by helping scientists quickly and cheaply identify endangered species, rare pathogens and sources of pollution.
“What we really wanted to highlight in this study was that the technology has advanced so far that we can now, in a single assay, detect all of these things simultaneously,” said Duffy, a professor of wildlife disease genomics at UF’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience. “You can look at animals, plants, fungi, microbes and viruses — all in a single test.”
With an international group of collaborators, Duffy published their findings on April 24 in the journal NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics.
Read the full article on UF News: How river DNA can track fish, frogs, fungi and human feces — all at once