Life on earth is DNA based. You breathe in a tiny bit of DNA every time you inhale, you drink a little bit of DNA with every sip of tap water and you walk on it everywhere you go. This is the case because every organism leaves behind traces of its DNA in the environment. Today, we can collect this DNA out of the air, from the ground or by filtering it from water.

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Sampling water for eDNA is appealing. The syringe method that is widely used is efficient and easy. Steps involve drawing water directly into a syringe and preserving it with a buffer solution. Once the sample is collected, DNA extraction is performed in the lab to isolate and purify the DNA from the environmental matrix. Next, high-throughput sequencing reads out the DNA. The resulting data is then analyzed using bioinformatics software to identify the species present in the sample. Finally, a report is generated to summarize the findings and provide information on the biodiversity of the sampled environment.