Reflection 6
This week we discussed nextgen sequencing and general primers. This is a field that I would be very interested in learning more about - until now my eDNA ideas and research have been mostly focused on single-species assays and qPCR. However, now that I’m more aware of what nextgen and general primers can do, I can’t seem to stop thinking of how this could be applied to the wildlife conservation field. I’m currently exploring (both with my group and as an expansion to a PhD program) using metabarcoding for snowtracks to assign species level to tracks that may otherwise be unidentifiable. I could see this taking an extra step to identify species to an individual level - I’m unsure if metabarcoding has gotten that far yet, but I know that I could at least sequence each sample to look for individually identifiable markers, sex, etc.
I think conceptually I understand this material very well, but I would be very curious to try running these samples in person to see how it works. There’s something of a gap in my mind that will always exist until I can see how something works from start to finish - it’s too bad I live so far from campus and COVID prevents a lot of interaction!
Also, just pondering - will this always be called “next gen” sequencing? It can only be “next gen” for so long…