Dr Luke Thomas1
1Australian Institute Of Marine Science, , Australia
Biography:
I am a Research Scientist for the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Perth, Western Australia. I have a background in population genetics and am interested in ways that eDNA can be applied to study populations and track individuals.
Abstract:
The capacity to sequence eDNA at scale has rapidly expanded our ability to monitor marine ecosystems. Yet its potential extends well beyond routine biodiversity detection. In this talk, I showcase recent work that demonstrates how eDNA can function as a forensic genetic tool across three levels of biological organisation: 1) detecting shifts in coral community composition following catastrophic marine heating; 2) estimating population-level allele frequencies across nuclear loci, progressing from validation in controlled zebrafish populations to applications in wild whale sharks and others; and 3) tracking the dispersal of coral larvae using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing and synthetic DNA barcodes. Together, these examples show how eDNA can move from describing which species are present to resolving changes among communities, populations and individuals. By bridging ecology, population genetics and synthetic biology, this work provides a scalable framework for investigating and managing tropical marine ecosystems.