New technology developed to unlock DNA secrets of elusive vaquita

The vaquita is one of the most endangered marine mammals on Earth. Protecting these enigmatic animals is extremely urgent. Surprisingly, a new method of teasing information from scarce and highly degraded samples is helping NOAA Fisheries and Mexican scientists unlock the genetic heritage of the endangered Mexican based animal.

Genetic studies can help scientists unlock the DNA secrets of the vaquita. For example, through the study we can get to know the story of how and how long ago the animals evolved into a unique species adapted to warm desert environment when most porpoises live in cool waters. All these information can do great help.

The scientists are faced with a great problem. Fewer than 100 vaquita remain living in the murky waters of the northern Gulf of California. It's hard to find them and collecting samples of their DNA since they are so wary and skittish. Most of the available genetic samples of vaquita come from animals inadvertently killed in fishing nets, which is a chief cause of mortality. They usually have been deteriorated by the time they reach a laboratory.

A small biotechnology company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, called Enter Swift Biosciences, has developed new methods for dealing with damaged and highly degraded DNA. Traditional methods require sizeable samples of intact DNA in its double-stranded form. The Swife's "next-generation" DNA sample preparation approach can extract genetic material even from bits and pieces of single-stranded DNA which have severely degraded for a long time.

You can obtain useful information though they're not that much. But it is a valuable tools to protect our wildlife resources.

Morin's team then applied the technology to 12 samples of vaquita DNA - including some that were even more degraded and of poorer quality than the harbor porpoise samples. The Swift sample preparation system produced useful data from all of the vaquita samples.

"It was a pleasant surprise to find that we had been able to generate genetic information that had seemed beyond reach without the Swift technologies," said Barbara Taylor, the SWFSC's leading vaquita biologist.

There is not much of a fossil record for porpoises, so genetics also provides the only real way to understand the animal's evolutionary history. Initial findings from the new research now confirm that vaquita apparently split from another species of porpoise from the Southern Hemisphere about 2 to 3 million years ago and have since survived on their own, in relatively small numbers.

The lab plans to apply the technology to other degraded DNA samples to find more evolutionary clues of other animals. The data will be a precious part for preserving endangered animals.

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