Water, water everywhere: environmental DNA can unlock population structure in elusive marine species.

ABSTRACT: Determining management units for natural populations is critical for effective conservation and management. However, collecting the requisite tissue samples for population genetic analyses remains the primary limiting factor for a number of marine species. The harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), one of the smallest cetaceans in the Northern Hemisphere, is a primary example. These elusive, highly mobile small animals confound traditional approaches of collecting tissue samples for genetic analyses, yet their nearshore habitat makes them highly vulnerable to fisheries by-catch and the effects of habitat degradation. By exploiting the naturally shed cellular material in seawater and the power of next-generation sequencing, we develop a novel approach for generating population-specifi

SUBMITTER: Parsons KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6124077 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature