Whitmore, LiamMcCauley, MarkFarrell, Jessica A.Stammnitz, Maximilian R.Koda, Samantha A.Mashkour, NargesSummers, VictoriaOsborne, ToddWhilde, JennyDuffy, David J.2023-06-262023-06-262023Whitmore 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/s41559-023-02056-22397-334Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/57318The 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.application/pdfeng© 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/.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02056-2Ecological geneticsScience, technology and societySequencingZoologyinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess