fundamentals of eDNA

Collins et al. (2019) conducted a comparison of universal primers through the lens of a case study to detect fish species from estuarine and coastal eDNA samples. Their research showed that there are primers that better detect these species than the commonly used COI primers, but that switching to these alternatives is limited by the robustness of the reference libraries used to design custom primers. Overall, this paper demonstrated the importance of testing primer sets to determine how well they perform in detecting target species and addressing research questions. This type of vetting seems important particularly in the context of research groups that may be interested in identifying multiple species or taxa. With performance information in hand, researchers are better equipped to select universal primers/genetic markers that strike a compromise between multiple groups. Lastly, it was interesting to hear that the BOLD database is largely underdeveloped for marine invertebrates. I would like to learn more about whether or not there is research underway to fill these gaps.