Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan.
Hokkaido University of Education, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.
PeerJ. 2023 Jun 14;11:e15431. doi: 10.7717/peerj.15431. eCollection 2023.
Environmental DNA (eDNA) is an increasingly popular tool in biological and ecological studies. As a biproduct of its increasing use, large number of eDNA samples are being collected and stored, that potentially contain information of many non-target species. One potential use for these eDNA samples is a surveillance and early detection of pathogens and parasites that are otherwise difficult to detect. is such a parasite with serious zoonotic concern, and whose range has been expanding. If eDNA samples from various studies can be repurposed in detecting the parasite, it can significantly reduce the costs and efforts in surveillance and early detection of the parasite. We designed and tested a new set of primer-probe for detecting mitochondrial DNA in environmental medium. Using this primer-probe set, we conducted real-time PCR on repurposed eDNA samples collected from three streams flowing through an area of Japan endemic to the parasite. We detected the DNA of in one of the 128 samples (0.78%). The discovery suggests that while detecting using eDNA samples is possible, the rate of detection appear to be very low. However, given the naturally low prevalence of the parasite among wild hosts in endemic areas, the repurposed eDNAs may still be a valid option for surveillance in newly introduced areas with the reduced cost and efforts. Further work is needed to assess and improve the effectiveness of using eDNA for detection of .
环境 DNA (eDNA) 在生物和生态研究中是一种越来越受欢迎的工具。随着其使用的增加，大量的 eDNA 样本被收集和储存，这些样本可能包含许多非目标物种的信息。这些 eDNA 样本的一个潜在用途是监测和早期发现那些难以检测到的病原体和寄生虫。旋毛虫就是这样一种具有严重人畜共患风险的寄生虫，其分布范围一直在扩大。如果可以重新利用来自各种研究的 eDNA 样本来检测寄生虫，那么在监测和早期发现寄生虫方面可以显著降低成本和工作量。我们设计并测试了一组新的引物-探针，用于检测环境介质中的线粒体 DNA。使用这套引物-探针，我们对来自日本流行旋毛虫地区的三条溪流的再利用 eDNA 样本进行了实时 PCR 检测。在 128 个样本中的一个样本中检测到了 旋毛虫的 DNA（0.78%）。这一发现表明，虽然使用 eDNA 样本检测 旋毛虫是可行的，但检测率似乎非常低。然而，鉴于该寄生虫在流行地区的野生宿主中的自然低流行率，重新利用的 eDNA 样本在成本和工作量降低的情况下，对于新引入地区的监测仍然是一个有效的选择。需要进一步的工作来评估和提高使用 eDNA 检测 旋毛虫的有效性。
