Scientists and investigators may not need to pull DNA samples from surfaces in the near future. According to researchers from Queen Mary University of London, it is possible to collect the DNA of humans and animals from the air.

A study published in PeerJ at the end of last March demonstrated for the first time that DNA can be extracted from the air in a manner similar to eDNA techniques, which have so far been mainly used. To survey aquatic environments and detect the presence of living organisms in them in a number of environmental studies.

Potential for new applications

The team used a wave pump with fine filters that can handle pressure from 5 to 20 minutes to sample DNA from a room that contained naked mole rats, a type of social rodent that lives in underground colonies.

Then they used currently available gene detection and decoding techniques to verify the DNA sequences inside air samples, and to identify animal species.

Researchers were able to collect DNA samples from a room that contained naked mole rats (gedmentate 44 - Wikipedia)

In this study, the researchers discovered the possibility of collecting environmental DNA from air samples (eDNAir), and the research team showed that by taking air samples, the presence of mole rat DNA can be successfully detected inside the animal's dwelling and from the same room.

Scientists have also found human DNA in air samples, which indicates the potential for this sampling technique to be used in forensic applications, and they have proven that it opens enormous potential for new environmental, health and forensic applications.

First published guide

Living organisms such as plants and animals throw some of their nucleic acids into their surrounding environments during their interaction with them, and if scientists succeed in obtaining the nucleic acids of organisms from their environment, the species present in this environment can be identified.

In recent years, environmental DNA has become an important tool that helps scientists identify the species found in different environments, yet most studies have focused on collecting environmental DNA only from water, despite the presence of DNA samples in the soil and air as well.

This method can be used to study the transmission of airborne diseases such as "Covid-1919" (Fernandoziminella - Pixabay)

"The use of environmental DNA has become a topic of growing interest within the scientific community, especially environmental scientists or conservationists who are looking for effective ways to monitor," said Dr. Elizabeth Clare, Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University and first author of the study, in a press release published on the university's website. Biological environments. "

"Here we present the first published evidence to show that animal environmental DNA can be collected from the air, which provides more opportunities for research into animal communities in hard-to-reach environments such as caves and burrows," she added.

new open

Claire stressed that the main goal of the work is to help conservationists and scientists study biological environments, and that with adequate development it can be used in much more than that.

"What started out as an attempt to see if this approach could be used in environmental assessments is now much more than that, with potential applications in forensics, anthropology and even medicine," Claire explains.

For example, forensic units can extract DNA from the air to determine if a suspect is present at a crime scene.

This discovery provides new technologies for researchers in anthropology, forensic medicine and forensic investigation (Ravid - Pixabay).

This technology may also be useful in medicine, as virologists and epidemiologists can better understand how airborne viruses spread, such as the virus behind the Corona pandemic, which causes Covid-19 disease.

According to Claire, "At the moment, social distancing guidelines are based on physics and estimates of the distance that virus particles can move, but using this technology we can actually take samples from the air and collect evidence from the real world to support these instructions."

The university said that the research team is working with industry partners to revive some of the potential applications of this technology, improve its accuracy, and to see how the technology can be applied in other ways.

It is expected that this technology will have many applications in the field of fighting the "Covid-19" pandemic that has swept the whole world, and some countries have recently entered the third wave of this epidemic.