Environmental RNA: A Revolution in Ecological Resolution?. (July 2021) - Yates, Matthew C.
Abstract : Current advancements in environmental RNA (eRNA) exploit its relatively fast turnover rate relative to environmental DNA (eDNA) to assess 'metabolically active' or temporally/spatially recent community diversity. However, this focus significantly underutilizes the trove of potential ecological information encrypted in eRNA. Here, we argue for pushing beyond current species-level eDNA detection capabilities by using eRNA to detect any organisms with unique eRNA profiles, potentially including different life-history stages, sexes, or even specific phenotypes within a species. We also discuss the future of eRNA as a means of assessing the physiological status of organisms and the ecological health of populations and communities, reflecting ecosystem-level conditions. We posit that eRNA has the potential to significantly improve the resolution of organism detection, biological monitoring, and biomonitoring applications in ecology. Highlights: eDNA has revolutionized species-detection and biomonitoring applications. Recent research has shown that eRNA can be extracted from aquatic environments. Current eRNA applications exploit its rapid degradation to quantify temporally recent or metabolically active communities. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) provides unprecedented ability to quantify the transcriptome. The application of NGS to study eRNA could significantly improve the resolution of organism detection and biological monitoring.