Cassiopea upside-down jellyfish filmed on the bottom of the seafloor of the mangrove waters 

In this study, an international research team led by Associate Professor Cheryl Ames, a marine biologist at Tohoku University, published a study in the journal Frontiers of Marine Science. Ames chose sampling sites in the Florida Keys (USA) where species of the upside-jellyfish genus Cassiopea occur, to test out their newly developed Fieldable eDNA Sequencing kit - called FeDS. Instead of the typically large sequencing machines used to complete such a task, Ames and her team were testing a portable sequencer (MinION from Nanopore) the size of a cellphone, powered by a laptop computer. A drop of the prepared eDNA mixture added to the portable sequencer reveals on the screen the genetic code of all the DNA passing through it in real-time. Only recently has molecular sequencing technology become advanced enough to conduct Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis in the field to identify species that may be endangered, invasive or dangerous, or difficult to collect. In this study, Ames and team detected 53 species of jellyfish including Cassiopea, the upside-down jellyfish, two venomous species of box jellyfish, many species with hydroid forms, and two species of stalked jellyfish which were previously unreported in the Florida Keys, indicating the utility of eDNA for detecting species that might otherwise go unnoticed. Modified from original post by Danielle Hall (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History).　
Video: Andre Morandini
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