RUB biologists develop fast and reliable lab protocol
Organisms in streams and rivers shed light on quality of
waters
(july 9, 2015) The
quality of waters can be assessed using of the organisms occurring therein.
This approach often results in errors, because many species look alike.
Therefore, new methods focus on DNA analyses instead. Biologists at the
Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have optimised the process so that they are now
able to identify many organisms at once in a quick and reliable manner using
short DNA sequences. The results have been published in the "PLOS
ONE" magazine.
Expert knowledge for species identification threatens to
disappear
Industry, agriculture and human settlement put a strain on
bodies of water; some organisms cannot survive due to the changing conditions
in streams and rivers. Accordingly, their existence sheds light on the quality
of the habitat. However, the number of experts able to identify the small
animals on the basis of their appearance is in decline; only a few junior
researchers are active in this field. RUB researchers from the Department
Animal Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity help preserve expert knowledge.