Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Faculty of Science and Technology and Athabasca River Basin Research Institute, Athabasca University, Athabasca, Alberta, Canada.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Aug 15;782:146891. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146891. Epub 2021 Apr 5.
Traditional environmental biomonitoring approaches have limitations in terms of species detectability and their capacity to account for spatial and temporal variation. Furthermore, as invasive techniques they can be harmful to individual organisms, populations and habitats. The application of non-invasive sampling methods that extract, isolate and identify nucleic acid sequences (i.e. DNA, RNA) from environmental matrices have significant potential for complementing, or even ultimately replacing, current methods of biological environmental assessment. These environmental DNA (eDNA) and environmental RNA (eRNA) techniques increase spatial and temporal acuity of monitoring, and in the case of the latter, may provide functional information regarding the health of individuals, and thus ecosystems. However, these assessments require robust analysis of factors such as the detectability and specificity of the developed assays. The presented work highlights the current and future uses of nucleic acid-based biomonitoring regimes, with a focus on fish and aquatic invertebrates and their utility for water quality, biodiversity and species-specific monitoring. These techniques are compared to traditional approaches, with a particular emphasis on the potential insights that could be provided by eRNA analysis, including the benefits of microRNAs as assay targets.
传统的环境生物监测方法在物种检测能力及其对时空变化的解释能力方面存在局限性。此外，作为侵入性技术，它们可能对个体生物、种群和栖息地造成危害。从环境基质中提取、分离和鉴定核酸序列（即 DNA、RNA）的非侵入性采样方法的应用具有很大的潜力，可以补充甚至最终取代目前的生物环境评估方法。这些环境 DNA (eDNA) 和环境 RNA (eRNA) 技术提高了监测的时空灵敏度，在后一种情况下，可能提供有关个体健康的功能信息，从而为生态系统提供信息。然而，这些评估需要对开发的检测方法的检测能力和特异性等因素进行稳健分析。本工作重点介绍了基于核酸的生物监测方法的当前和未来用途，重点是鱼类和水生无脊椎动物及其在水质、生物多样性和特定物种监测方面的应用。这些技术与传统方法进行了比较，特别强调了 eRNA 分析可能提供的潜在见解，包括将 microRNAs 作为检测目标的好处。
