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https://theconversation.com/spiders-inspired-biologists-to-create-artificial-webs-to-capture-airborne-dna-for-biodiversity-monitoring-265741>
"The global crisis of diminishing biological diversity is challenging our
current ability to monitor changes in ecosystems.
Environmental DNA, or eDNA, has become a popular method. It involves taking a
sample from the environment and extracting the DNA to document the species that
are (or were recently) present.
Just like matching barcodes to an item’s price at the supermarket, eDNA data
are matched to a corresponding identification record in a reference database.
But most eDNA sampling takes place in water, passing litres of liquid through a
filter that retains DNA fragments for analysis. This method works very well for
freshwater and marine species, but less so on land.
Enter airborne DNA, or airDNA, an emerging method not yet optimised for
widespread commercial applications but with great promise for capturing signals
of land-based biodiversity.
Researchers have been exploring the question of whether natural spiderwebs
could be used to collect DNA, but our research takes this a step further.
Inspired by a bit of Halloween decoration, we designed artificial spiderwebs to
see if they are as good as the real thing in capturing airborne DNA. Our data
show artificial spiderwebs performed similarly to real spiderwebs in detecting
land-dwelling species."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
