Prof. Morten Allentoft1, Dr Mahsa Mousavi-Derazmahalleh1, Mr Ben Heyward1, Dr Nicole White1, A/Prof Bill Bateman1, A/Prof Paul Nevill1, Mr Josh Newton1, Dr. Matt Campbell1
1Trace and Environmental DNA (TrEnD) Laboratory, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
Biography:
Morten Allentoft is an evolutionary biologist specializing in population genomics and ancient DNA research. He obtained a PhD from Canterbury University, New Zealand in 2011 and then established himself as a group leader at University of Copenhagen in Denmark. While his research in the past decade has evolved mostly around ancient humans, he has a broad interest in natural history. His publication list spans a diverse range of topics like prevalence of prehistoric plague, horse domestication, snake venom evolution, millipede speciation, amphibian conservation, megafauna extinctions, and declines in Australian marsupials. In mid-2020 he was appointed a Professor in Molecular Ecology at Curtin University in Australia to lead the Trace and Environmental DNA (TrEnD) Laboratory renowned for its environmental DNA (eDNA) research. The overriding scientific aim in TrEnD is to understand patterns of past and present biodiversity with a strong emphasis on conservation.
Abstract:
Reptiles are declining at a global scale with >20% of the worlds’ species threatened by extinction. Efficient biomonitoring methods are crucial and because reptiles (snakes in particular) are often elusive and difficult to observe in the field, an eDNA approach could seem like an obvious solution. Unfortunately, the general notion is that eDNA biomonitoring is not suited for reptiles due to their low DNA shedding rate. Using Australia as example; 40% of the terrestrial vertebrates are reptiles, many of which are both endemic and endangered, so unless we can overcome this challenge, eDNA has a major limitation as a terrestrial biomonitoring tool on this continent. This presentation will discuss the problems and prospects of reptile eDNA biomonitoring and showcase results from our ongoing research, covering different taxonomic groups (snakes and lizards), different substrates (water, soil, scats, spider webs etc), different experimental designs (in situ, tank experiments, enclosures) and different molecular methods (qPCR, metabarcoding, shotgun sequencing). These insights can set the scene for future priorities and advances to improve biomonitoring of reptiles at a global scale.