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DNA floating in the air tracks wildlife, viruses, even drugs
Environmental DNA from the air, captured with simple air filters, can track everything from illegal drugs to the wildlife it was originally designed to study.
Housed at UF's Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, Duffy's lab developed new methods for deciphering environmental DNA, also known as eDNA, to study sea turtle genetics. With little more than an air filter, scientists could track endangered species and identify where they came from, all without having to lay eyes on skittish animals or root around forest floors for scat samples. The same tools can potentially identify sensitive human genetic data, which is why Duffy and his collaborators have called for ethical guardrails for the rapidly developing field of eDNA.
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