Application of environmetal DNA methods to detect aquatic plants

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K20056
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Environmental conservation measure and related fields
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Masayuki Maki 東北大学, 学術資源研究公開センター, 教授 (60263985)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 藤井 伸二 人間環境大学, 人間環境学部, 准教授 (40228945) ; 森長 真一 日本大学, 生物資源科学部, 助教 (80568262)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-06-30 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 在来種保全

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Although there are many rare species in aquatic plants, it is not easy to identify them. However, there is a possibility that the environmental DNA method, which has been rapidly developed in recent years, can be used to detect aquatic plants in water samples taken from surveyed areas. The purpose of this study was to establish a method to apply environmental DNA to the detection of aquatic plants and to investigate its applicability in lakes and ponds in wild.
Chloroplast DNA is often used for plant DNA barcoding, but the water in lakes and ponds contains a large number of algae, which can also be detected. In this study, we developed PCR primers to detect vascular plants efficiently. When we applied this method to the field lake and ponds, we were able to detect vascular plants, including those that were actually growing in the lakes and ponds.

Free Research Field

植物分類学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

水中の水草を検出することは困難が伴うが，取水を行って，そこに微量ながら存在する遺伝物質（環境DNAという）の情報を得ることによって，存在する水草を知ることが可能であると考えられる．この研究では，そのような方法の確立を行って，実際に野外における湖沼の水から存在する水草を検出できるかどうかを検討した．その結果，効率的に維管束植物（藻類ではない普通の植物）を同定することができ，稀少植物の検出にも応用できる可能性を示した．