Our “GoFish” paper is published in PLOS ONE (Stoeckle MY, Mishu MD, Charlop-Powers Z. GoFish: a versatile nested PCR strategy for environmental DNA assays for marine vertebrates). From water collection to Sanger sequencing results, the assay can be carried out in three days. This approach will be a useful addition to current eDNA methods when analyzing presence/absence of known species, when turnaround time is important, and in educational settings.
Our “GoFish” paper is published in PLOS ONE (Stoeckle MY, Mishu MD, Charlop-Powers Z. GoFish: a versatile nested PCR strategy for environmental DNA assays for marine vertebrates). Excerpt from the abstract:
“GoFish assays amplify a mitochondrial 12S rDNA segment with vertebrate metabarcoding primers, followed by nested PCR with M13-tailed, species-specific primers. Sanger sequencing confirms positives detected by gel electrophoresis.
Unlike quantitative PCR (qPCR), GoFish does not require tissues of target and related species for assay development and a basic thermal cycler is sufficient. Unlike Illumina metabarcoding, indexing and batching samples are unnecessary and advanced bioinformatics expertise is not needed. From water collection to Sanger sequencing results, the assay can be carried out in three days.
The main limitations to this approach, which employs metabarcoding primers, are the same as for metabarcoding, namely, inability to distinguish species with shared target sequences and inconsistent amplification of rarer eDNA.
This approach will be a useful addition to current eDNA methods when analyzing presence/absence of known species, when turnaround time is important, and in educational settings.”
Our paper, “Why should mitochondria define species?“, is published open access in Human Evolution 2018; 33:1-40. It recently received a lot popular press attention claiming our work supports creationist views. This interpretation of our work is wrongheaded.
An article by Steve Leahy for National Geographic about our National Conference on Marine Environmental DNA
New DNA tool ‘changes everything in marine science’
Also in the news net:
Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Newsletter
Leading Practitioners Of eDNA Science Gather To Discuss New Tool’s Possibilities
Thanks to every one of the 100 participants. It was thrilling for all!
Also a good story in the Martha’s Vineyard Times about Linda Fairstein’s new book in which kids collect eDNA on Martha’s Vineyard.
And in the Martha’s Vineyard Gazette: Swimming With the Fishes, Naming Them Too, Monday, December 3, 2018 – 1:58pm.
Today begins our National Conference on Marine Environmental DNA.
A press release describes the purposes and previews some findings.
The meeting is part of the continuing Monmouth University-Rockefeller University Marine Science and Policy Initiative.
The article Why should mitochondria define species?
Stoeckle M.Y., Thaler D.S.
is grounded in and strongly supports Darwinian evolution, including the understanding all life has evolved from a common biological origin over several billion years.
The study follows mainstream views of human evolution. We do not propose there was a single “Adam” or “Eve”. We do not propose any catastrophic events.
“Leonardo da Vinci: the faces of the genius,” an exhibition curated by our esteemed colleague in the Leonardo DNA Project, Christian Galvez, opens in Madrid on 30 November. Team members Jose Lorente and Karina Aberg will participate. The exhibition includes a section about our search for his DNA.
The passing on 30 September 2018 in Washington DC of Jeannette Aspden, colleague from IIASA and the Carnegie Commission, elicits a brief written tribute. Celebrations and remembrances of our colleagues have accumulated over the years, and we re-post them here.
Vera Alexander (Remembrance 2023)
Jeannette Aspden (Remembrance 2018)
Robert Herman (In Memory of Robert Herman, 1997)
Robert Kates (The Classification of Robert Kates, 2018)
Alexander Keynan (The Germination of Alexander Keynan, in memoriam, 2013)
Janusz Kindler (Remembrance, 2021)
Joshua Lederberg (In memoriam, 2008)
Joshua Lederberg (A Tribute to the Foresight of Joshua Lederberg, 2009)
Thomas F. Malone (Tom Malone here [poem], 1984)
Andrew W. Marshall, Andrew Marshall and Classics (remembrance, 2019)
Rodney Nichols (2018)
William A. Nierenberg (Memorial Tribute, 2000)
William D. Nordhaus (Getting to know Bill Nordhaus and Climate, 2019)
Fan and Don Ogilvie (“It was fruit“, poem celebrating our friendship)
Arthur L. Singer, Jr. (Old Friends, A Remembrance, 2020)
Chauncey Starr (A 90th Birthday Tribute, 2002)
Oleg F. Vasiliev, 1925-2017 (scroll to second entry past Beck tribute)
Paul E. Waggoner (Thriving Thrift: On the Occasion of Paul Waggoner Appreciation Day, 2013)
Robert M. White (Portrait of Robert M. White in the style of Gertrude Stein, 1979)
Norton Zinder (A Remembrance of Norton Zinder, 2012)
Census of Marine Life, for a personal view of the program, read Jesse’s poem, The Census of Marine Life is about the total richness of the sea, the foreword to Life in the World’s Oceans: Diversity, Distribution, and Abundance, A. McIntyre (ed.), Wiley-Blackwell, 2010
William Nordhaus today earned the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his pioneering work on climate change. Hooray for Bill!
Jesse first encountered Bill’s work in the late 1970s, started a magazine file of it, and retains to this day first editions of the classic inventive papers from 1975, Can We Control Carbon Dioxide?, and 1977, Strategies for the Control of Carbon Dioxide, and others that followed (see photo below).
Jesse served as a research assistant to Bill during the 1981-1983 Carbon Dioxide Assessment Committee of the National Academy of Sciences and co-authored with him the 1983 paper, J. A review of estimates of future carbon dioxide emissions in Changing climate: Report of the carbon dioxide assessment committee, pp. 153-185, National Academy Press, Washington DC 1983.
Fred Pearce writes about our exploration of whether humanity is nearing peak use of stuff in this article in Anthropocene magazine: Are We Approaching Peak Stuff? Almost imperceptibly, we are stepping off the consumption treadmill