A Rapid, Portable, Low-Cost Sensor for Autonomous Detection of Marine Environmental DNA Onboard Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Platforms

Comprehensive environmental monitoring programs are essential for assessing the biodiversity of marine ecosystems and implementing effective conservation measures. Currently, data on marine species is obtained by visual surveys, fishing nets, acoustic methods, and tissue biopsies. These techniques can be expensive, time-consuming, invasive, and destructive to marine habitats, as well as unreliable because of their high false positive and false negative detection rates. All living marine organisms shed traces of their DNA into the environment. This environmental DNA (eDNA) serves as an important genetic biomarker enabling non-invasive, more sensitive, and more accurate detection of marine species compared to traditional survey methods. However, current PCR and next-generation sequencing methods for eDNA detection are not suitable for routine testing applications because of high costs, need for highly trained operators, and slow sample-to-answer turnaround time. To address this challenge, Giner will develop a compact, field-portable, advanced molecular diagnostic sensor device that enables rapid, sensitive, and accurate detection of marine eDNA onboard autonomous underwater vehicles.