Researchers inadvertently discover that human DNA is basically everywhere, waiting to be scooped up accidentally during environmental data collection. But what does this mean for our privacy? <\/p>
We leave traces of ourselves everywhere we go. Like snakes<\/a> (but without the drama) we shed our dead skin and hair. We cough and spit, or flush the DNA<\/a> in our body\u2019s waste into the environment, and \u2013 on a bad day \u2013 we bleed into our surroundings too.<\/p>\n Now, scientists have discovered that this human DNA can be pulled out water, earth, and literally \u2018thin air\u2019 \u2013 and is strong enough to be matched to individuals. The University of Florida researchers found human DNA almost everywhere \u2013 swirling through oceans and rivers or buried in the sand of beaches. They are calling this \u2018human genetic bycatch\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were absolutely shocked to find more DNA from the general public in the river systems around the institute than we were from our own facility,\u201d Dr David Duffy<\/a>, an assistant professor of wildlife disease genomics at the University of Florida and one of the authors of the paper, told\u00a0BBC Science Focus<\/i>\u00a0and other publications.<\/p>\n Environmental DNA, or e-DNA, is free-floating fragments of tissues or other biological material that circulates through terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. It\u2019s often used in scientific investigations to monitor biodiversity, trace diseases or track invasive species.<\/p>\n But the study published in\u00a0Nature Ecology & Evolution<\/em> reveals that human DNA can be collected and identified just as easily as these target species<\/a>.<\/p>\n The researchers discovered this almost by accident. When tracing the viral cancers causing a sea turtle pandemic, they expected to find some human e-DNA \u2013 particularly in their own labs \u2013 but not to find it almost everywhere they looked. The only places human e-DNA was not found was remote islands and mountaintops<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n These aren\u2019t just traces: according to Duffy, the DNA samples they found allow the same level of advanced study as DNA taken directly from individuals themselves. \u201cWhat was really surprising was the quantity and quality,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are some other studies where trace amounts of human DNA have been picked up, but never really to this level.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019re talking such high-quality DNA that the researchers would have been able to sequence it to identify the owner\u2019s genetic ancestry, or detect mutations linked to genetic diseases like autism and diabetes.<\/p>\n Except that they didn\u2019t sequence all of the DNA they found \u2013 only that of volunteers who had consented for this to happen. To do so would have embroiled the researchers in an ethical dilemma: while scientific investigations of this kind will often share the study\u2019s findings publicly, in this case that would mean sharing incredibly sensitive information about specific individuals.<\/p>\n Anyone would be to access and harvest this information \u2013 not just about where an individual had been, but also the specifics of their health and ancestry. In the future, the researchers warn that this could even enable the tracking of individuals or specific ethnic groups through the environment.<\/p>\n The findings do also present beneficial opportunities, including forensic use in criminal investigations \u2013 like identifying suspects from the DNA in the air of a crime scene. It could also advance study in the research fields of medicine, environmental science, and archaeology. Archaeologists, for example, could uncover archaeological sites by searching for hidden human DNA.<\/p>\n Either way, the study highlights an urgent need for policymakers to tackle issues of consent and privacy when it comes to e-DNA.<\/p>\n \u201cThis collection of human e-DNA is an issue that\u2019s going to grow over time,\u201d according to Duffy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t just ignore that there\u2019s all of this human data potentially being accumulated,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the case for policymakers and scientists to sit down and decide how we should take this technology forward, what sorts of checks and balances that may need to be put in place before it\u2019s more widely used.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr David Duffy is an assistant professor of wildlife disease genomics at the University of Florida\u2019s Department of Biology, as well as a researcher in the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience and Sea Turtle Hospital. His research has been published in Nature, Frontiers in Marine Science, and Communications Biology.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <\/body><\/html>\n Researchers inadvertently discover that human DNA is basically everywhere, waiting to be scooped up accidentally during environmental data collection. 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But what does this mean for our privacy?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/27445"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}About our expert<\/h4>\n
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