Research progress of environmental DNA technology and its application in ecology of the Yangtze River basin
Yangtze River is the longest waterway in China and has rich fishery resource.But over the years fishery resources have plummeted due to pressures including pollution,unsustainable fishing,and damming and draining of rivers and wetlands.Traditional fishery resource survey methods are often based on specimen collection and morphological identification,which are time-consuming and ineffective.Additionally,these methods are unable to conduct the type of large-scale,continuous ecological surveys for many conservation initiatives.Therefore there is an urgent need to find a new approach of monitoring to meet the growing biodiversity surveillance needs.As molecular biology tools have improved,environmental DNA technology has been introduced into the field of ecology,showing great potential to meet conservation needs.Environmental DNA technology is defined as DNA isolated from environmental samples,including microbial,meiofaunal and macrobial taxa,in contrast to genomic DNA extracted directly from specimens.This technology has been widely used in food microbiology,biological monitoring,community ecology,paleo environmental research,conservation biology and biological invasion.Environmental DNA technology requirements for sampling are low,it can detect organisms in the environment more comprehensively,also can detect the relevant information of invasive alien species and cherished protected species,especially when the sampling of low-density species is difficult to control,its sensitivity,simplicity and harm reduction advantages are increasingly apparent.Environmental DNA technology also has some limitations:there is cross-infection during the experiment,and there are false positives and false negatives in the results,and it is impossible to distinguish between species life and development.By reviewing the definition,development history,research methods,advantages and disadvantages of environmental DNA,the research progress of environmental DNA technology and its application in the Yangtze River basin ecology are explored and analyzed.Environmental DNA technology can be applied to the ecology of the Yangtze River basin,including biodiversity monitoring,biomass assessment,ecological health assessment,etc.The relevant indicators of environmental DNA technology can indirectly display species-related information,predict ecosystem processes,guide management decisions related to large ecosystems,and then supplement and improve the ecological health evaluation system.At the same time,the data obtained by environmental DNA technology can also be applied in the assessment of breeding and release effects of important species in the Yangtze River basin,and assist in optimizing and improving the formulation of fishery management policies.In the future,in order to properly apply environmental DNA technology in the field of aquatic biomonitoring,researchers should focus on the following aspects:technological innovation of the combination of environmental DNA technology and environmental RNA technology,the combination of next-generation sequencing methods,big databases and machine intelligence technology.
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维普
