Measuring air metagenomic diversity in an agricultural ecosystem

• DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.07.030
• Publication Date: 2024-08-02T14:40:45Z
• Authors: Michael Giolai; Walter Verweij; Samuel Martin; Neil Pearson; Paul Nicholson; Richard M. Leggett; Matthew D. Clark
• Keywords: AirSeq; disease monitoring; Ecology, evolutionary biology; air shotgun metagenomics; Puccinia striiformis; strain typing; eDNA; environmental DNA; wheat disease; metagenome; Agronomy; barley disease

All species shed DNA during life or in death, providing an opportunity to monitor biodiversity via environmental (eDNA). In recent years, combining eDNA, high-throughput sequencing technologies, bioinformatics, and increasingly complete sequence databases has promised a non-invasive non-destructive monitoring tool. Modern agricultural systems are often large monocultures so highly vulnerable disease outbreaks. Pest pathogen ecosystems is key for efficient early prevention, lower pesticide use, better food security. Although the air rich biodiversity, it lowest concentration of all media yet route windborne spread many damaging crop pathogens. Our work suggests that can be monitored efficiently using airborne nucleic acid information. Here, we show microbes recovered, shotgun sequenced, taxonomically classified, including down level. We by field growing crops identify presence agriculturally significant pathogens quantify their changing abundance over period 1.5 months, correlating with weather variables. add evidence aerial eDNA used as source biomonitoring terrestrial ecosystems, specifically highlighting relevant how levels correlate conditions. ability detect dynamically strains highlights value agriculture, changes, tracking taxa interest.