Meeting Abstract
Water in the marine environment is filled with particles and compounds including pigments, cells, waste products, and free nucleic acids. DNA released from organisms into surrounding waters are referred to as environmental DNA (eDNA). eDNA can stay present in water for weeks. Modern sequencing technology can be used on eDNA to characterize complex, mixed species assemblages from a small water sample. Few studies have looked into the details of eDNA such as variation in accumulation and its persistence for different species. This study seeks to use manipulative experiments to quantify the accumulation and degradation of eDNA in three mollusc species: the intertidal limpet (Lottia digitalis), the red abalone (Haliotis rufescens), and the California blue mussel (Mytilus californianus). Overall goals of the study include (1) to understand how much eDNA these molluscs exude, (2) which organismal compartments generate eDNA, and (3) to characterize the rate of degradation under different temperature, UV, and bacterial conditions for the three species. The results of this research will enhance the utility of eDNA as a monitoring tool by characterizing its accumulation, detectability, and degradation within a system. The endangered owl limpet L. gigantea, black abalone H. cracherodii, and white abalone H. sorenseni are relatives of organisms in the present study; molecular techniques along with eDNA could be an inexpensive, rapid monitoring tool to track these organisms if the eDNA remains detectable in the system for long enough.
