ABOVE: In the researchers’ experimental setup, a naked mole rat burrow is equipped with a tube that passes through a peristaltic pump, which forces air through a DNA-capturing filter.
ELIZABETH CLARE
Researchers in the UK have successfully isolated airborne mammalian DNA, showing that in air, just as in water, animals leave behind invisible but useful traces of themselves that scientists can monitor. The results, published March 31 in PeerJ, represent a new direction for environmental DNA (eDNA) research that could one day lead to advances in forensic science and public health, in addition to ecological surveillance.
“This is really the first time airborne samples have been used to look at mammals, and it’s very exciting,” says Mark Johnson, an ecologist at Texas Tech University who has used airborne DNA to study plants and was not involved in the current work. Through his own research, Johnson adds, “we’ve learned that airborne ...
