dc.contributor.author |
Whitmore, Liam |
dc.contributor.author |
McCauley, Mark |
dc.contributor.author |
Farrell, Jessica A. |
dc.contributor.author |
Stammnitz, Maximilian R. |
dc.contributor.author |
Koda, Samantha A. |
dc.contributor.author |
Mashkour, Narges |
dc.contributor.author |
Summers, Victoria |
dc.contributor.author |
Osborne, Todd |
dc.contributor.author |
Whilde, Jenny |
dc.contributor.author |
Duffy, David J. |
dc.date.accessioned |
2023-06-26T05:54:21Z |
dc.date.available |
2023-06-26T05:54:21Z |
dc.date.issued |
2023 |
dc.identifier.citation |
Whitmore L, McCauley M, Farrell JA, Stammnitz MR, Koda SA, Mashkour N, Summers V, Osborne T, Whilde J, Duffy DJ. Inadvertent human genomic bycatch and intentional capture raise beneficial applications and ethical concerns with environmental DNA. Nat Ecol Evol. 2023 Jun;7(6):873-88. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02056-2 |
dc.identifier.issn |
2397-334X |
dc.identifier.uri |
http://hdl.handle.net/10230/57318 |
dc.description.abstract |
The field of environmental DNA (eDNA) is advancing rapidly, yet human eDNA applications remain underutilized and underconsidered. Broader adoption of eDNA analysis will produce many well-recognized benefits for pathogen surveillance, biodiversity monitoring, endangered and invasive species detection, and population genetics. Here we show that deep-sequencing-based eDNA approaches capture genomic information from humans (Homo sapiens) just as readily as that from the intended target species. We term this phenomenon human genetic bycatch (HGB). Additionally, high-quality human eDNA could be intentionally recovered from environmental substrates (water, sand and air), holding promise for beneficial medical, forensic and environmental applications. However, this also raises ethical dilemmas, from consent, privacy and surveillance to data ownership, requiring further consideration and potentially novel regulation. We present evidence that human eDNA is readily detectable from 'wildlife' environmental samples as human genetic bycatch, demonstrate that identifiable human DNA can be intentionally recovered from human-focused environmental sampling and discuss the translational and ethical implications of such findings. |
dc.description.sponsorship |
Funding for the initial HGB eDNA study was generously provided by the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation under project name Fibropapillomatosis Training and Research Initiative (D.J.D.), a Welsh Government Sêr Cymru II and the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 663830-BU115 (D.J.D.). This research was also supported by Gumbo Limbo Nature Center d/b/a Friends of Gumbo Limbo (a 501c3 non-profit organization) through a generous donation through their Graduate Research Grant programme (J.A.F.) and by an Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship, under project no. GOIPG/2020/1056 (L.W.). Intentional human eDNA research was funded by D.J.D.’s University of Florida start-up funds. M.R.S. was supported by an EMBO long-term fellowship (ALTF 544-2021). We thank M. Q. Martindale, N. Condron, K. Yetsko, S. Creer, A. Pacetti, E. Ryan, C. Eastman and all of our generous co-authors on the wildlife and pathogen research papers for which these HGB samples were originally generated8,17. We thank P. Murphy and R. Rolfe for facilitating eDNA extraction of Irish samples in their lab in the Zoology Department, Trinity College Dublin, and A. Krstic, W. Kolch, A. G. Munoz and the Conway Core Facilities staff for facilitating qPCR of the Irish samples at Systems Biology Ireland and the Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research at University College Dublin. We also thank F. Duffy and I. Duffy for assistance with sampling; M. ten Cate and A. Whilde for gifting supplies; K. Foote, A. Rich and the NPS staff of the Fort Matanzas National Monument for valuable assistance with permitting and facilitating access to Rattlesnake Island and site selection; and S. Loesgen (University of Florida) for the SH-SY5Y cells. Finally, we thank the anonymous study participants who permitted us to collect their footprints and room air for human eDNA analysis, with full ethical approval and informed consent. |
dc.format.mimetype |
application/pdf |
dc.language.iso |
eng |
dc.publisher |
Nature Research |
dc.relation.ispartof |
Nat Ecol Evol. 2023 Jun;7(6):873-88 |
dc.rights |
© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
dc.rights.uri |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
dc.title |
Inadvertent human genomic bycatch and intentional capture raise beneficial applications and ethical concerns with environmental DNA |
dc.type |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
dc.identifier.doi |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02056-2 |
dc.subject.keyword |
Ecological genetics |
dc.subject.keyword |
Science, technology and society |
dc.subject.keyword |
Sequencing |
dc.subject.keyword |
Zoology |
dc.relation.projectID |
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/663830 |
dc.rights.accessRights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
dc.type.version |
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |