eDNA in Subterranean Biology Update
At the 23rd International Conference on Subterranean Biology two years ago I presented the results of a survey that introduced the eDNA method in the subterranean environment. Since then it is possible to detect the presence of the olm Proteus (and the amphipod Stygobromus, thanks to Matt Niemiller & colleagues) in karst groundwater by analyzing samples of water collected on the surface - e.g. at springs or in wells.
Our poster presented at the 24th conference, held last week in Aveiro, Portugal, showed what had been done in continuation of that work, as we started to develop a method to estimate Proteus population sizes from eDNA.
![](https://d3t9s8cdqyboc5.cloudfront.net/images?path=61182/STxDQxmHRVOwRy8Cimdq_IMG_8761-2.jpg&width=650&height=)
Thanks to everyone who came by for your interest, comments and suggestions.
Of course, the number of eDNA copies we may find in the water depends not only on the number of individuals that release it and its release rate, but also on the volume of water it is dissolved in, its transport rate along the current, decomposition processes and the associated degradation rate, and the efficiency of all stages of eDNA collection. So now we are hoping to obtain funding to investigate and characterize the Planina Cave and its resident Proteus population in greater detail, as well as to measure the many variables in the eDNA model in a more controlled, experimental setting.
On the other end of the known subterranean eDNA world, Michael Curran of the Bennelongia Environmental Consultants and Nicole White from Curtin University have launched the "impossible" mission to characterize Australian subterranean communities by metabarcoding. Michael told us that their environmental samples are obtained from 20-meter-deep boreholes that are dug in the desert ground while outside air temperature reaches inhuman 50 degrees celsius! Yet they really earned my admiration by succeeding in sequencing eDNA of a few subterranean taxa from the very warm groundwater Nicole gets to analyze and by being the very first to also apply the eDNA method on the much much rarer terrestrial subterranean fauna.
Looking forward to future milestones!
3 comments