Skip to main content
Article
Urine as a High-Quality Source of Host Genomic DNA from Wild Populations
bioRxiv
  • Andrew T. Ozga, Arizona State University; Nova Southeastern University
  • Timothy H. Webster, Arizona State University; University of Utah
  • Ian C. Gilby, Arizona State University
  • Melissa A. Wilson, Arizona State University
  • Rebecca Nockerts, University of Minnesota
  • Michael L. Wilson, University of Minnesota
  • Anne Pusey, Duke University
  • Yingying Li, University of Pennsylvania
  • Beatrice H. Hahn, University of Pennsylvania
  • Anne C. Stone, Arizona State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-20-2020
Keywords
  • Genomic methods,
  • Endangered populations,
  • Primates,
  • Population genetics - empirical
Disciplines
Abstract

The ability to generate genomic data from wild animal populations has the potential to give unprecedented insight into the population history and dynamics of species in their natural habitats. However, in the case of many species, it is impossible legally, ethically, or logistically to obtain tissues samples of high-quality necessary for genomic analyses. In this study we evaluate the success of multiple sources of genetic material (feces, urine, dentin, and dental calculus) and several capture methods (shotgun, whole-genome, exome) in generating genome-scale data in wild eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) from Gombe National Park, Tanzania. We found that urine harbors significantly more host DNA than other sources, leading to broader and deeper coverage across the genome. Urine also exhibited a lower rate of allelic dropout. We found exome sequencing to be far more successful than both shotgun sequencing and whole-genome capture at generating usable data from low-quality samples such as feces and dental calculus. These results highlight urine as a promising and untapped source of DNA that can be noninvasively collected from wild populations of many species.

Comments

The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Additional Comments
NIH grant #: R35GM124827
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International
ORCID ID
0000-0003-4540-7106
ResearcherID
D-1147-2018
DOI
10.1101/2020.02.18.955377v1
Citation Information
Andrew T. Ozga, Timothy H. Webster, Ian C. Gilby, Melissa A. Wilson, et al.. "Urine as a High-Quality Source of Host Genomic DNA from Wild Populations" bioRxiv (2020) p. 1 - 33
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/andrew-ozga/37/