Game changing technology from UCLA to revolutionize biodiversity management

June 18, 2019

Just like humans, other organisms leave genetic traces pretty much everywhere. A new DNA tool developed by UCLA researchers – the Anacapa Toolkit – can help rapidly detect which species are present in a given area just from analyzing a small amount of soil or water. This tool offers many potential benefits, including:  replacing hundreds of hours of in-person efforts, providing much more efficient and accurate assessments, and alerting researchers of threats of invasive species before they are visible.

The Anacapa Toolkit allows researchers to catalog different species’ DNA present in soil and water samples with an unprecedented efficiency. (Photo Credit: Zack Gold/UCLA)

A research paper featuring the Anacapa Toolkit’s effectiveness, was published in Methods of Ecology and Evolution.

Learn more at UCLA Newsroom.