by Professor Suzannah Williams wishes that she would not have to spend her days with the analysis of Poop samples. It is a dirty job; But someone has to do it.
The biological diversity quickly disappears, with the wildlife populations between 1970 and 2020 decreasing by an average of 73%. For Williams and her small team at the University of Oxford in Great Britain, animal feces contain that could help conservationists to better monitor the wild animals and possibly even restore the dizziness.
When animals empty, they shed out living cells from their intestine, and they can be found outside the manure, says Williams, professor of fertility and reproductive health.
Living cells contain DNA and genetic information that can help the researchers understand the biodiversity and to inform breeding programs or maintenance efforts.
Usually, wild animals would have to be caught and anesthetized in order to remove a tissue sample like a small skin biopsy that is time -consuming and stressful for the animal, says Williams. In addition, many laws prevent samples for research purposes: In the UK and Europe, the removal of tissue samples is heavily regulated, unless this benefits directly from the health of the individual animal, which makes the collection of large amounts of data difficult over genetic diversity, says Williams.
That is why she began the so -called “Poo Zoo”, which was non -profit and restored in October 2024 with funds from the non -profit preservation. The project is based on previous studies carried out by scientists in Japan and isolated living cells in mouse stools, although the cells were of low quality and were contaminated with faecal bacteria, says Williams.
Through the refinement and optimization of methods for cell insulation, Williams hopes to improve cell quality and offer conservationists a non-invasive method in order to collect live cell samples to collecting cell samples in the long term, which could be used for IVF efforts for hard-to-tune and endangered species
“It is not the case that it will be a better test (than from a handkerchief), that’s definitely not the case. But I can’t go to a snow leopard in the wild,” says Williams. “If you have found out where you kept, you could set a camera trap and collect samples, while otherwise you can never collect a sample from these animals.”
“An ocean of Kot”
Starting with mouse droppings, which was easily accessible in the university laboratory, the team experimented with various methods for dilution and stress on the scat in order to maintain the cells as quickly as possible as possible in order to protect the freshness.
After the POO Zoo refined a technique for mice, he targeted a larger goal: elephant dung. While Williams endeavored to work on a way that is often of central importance for the conservation efforts, its size was some major problems.
“With Maus Poo you have small dry pellets. With an elephant you have a huge bolus that you basically hold with two hands. You are huge. How do you work with it and transform it into some cells in a tube without becoming an ocean of poo and liquid?” Williams explained.
Bio -Kanking researcher Dr. In cooperation with Chester Zoo, Rhiannon Bolton accepted the challenge that had access to fresh elephant droppings.
Chester Zoo collects feces for analysis to collect information about the health of an animal such as hormones and pregnancy status. – Chester zoo
“In the zoo you work quite a bit on the faecher analysis whether the microbioma (mikor organisms) or hormones are considered in the feces,” says Bolton, who can help to monitor veterinarians or fertility.
The refinement of the technology, the details of which are kept close to the closure until it is published in a paper examined by experts, was “a lot of attempt and error,” says Bolton, from washing the entire bolus to tiny external scratch.
“In the beginning there were still quite a few rubble, and now we are far less in our samples,” she adds.
There are other non-invasive ways to collect samples, e.g. B. hairfalls that use pheromones to attract wildlife and adhesive to collect hair samples. Researchers have previously used this method to examine mammalian populations, although Bolton says that hair samples provide fewer cells that are more susceptible to environmental conditions, while FECES offers a reliable and plentiful source of cells.
“The unique protocols that we have developed are uncomplicated and inexpensive and can therefore easily be rolled out in a massive manner,” she adds.
The team has now insulated elephant cells several times and demonstrated the reliability of its technology, says Williams – and it hopes that the technology can be introduced on site as soon as research is published. Conservationists often pursue animals through footprints, fur and feces that could offer an opportunity for the collection in the wild.
“I think the only restriction would be the freshness of the sample,” says Williams. Since the entire crap that they worked with comes from the controlled surroundings of the zoo, she speculates that the weather conditions could influence the drought of the manure and thus the sample. “If it is in the sun, it may not be the best, so you may want to make sure that it is one in the shade,” she adds.
Excrement in offspring?
The genetic analysis is only one of the possible uses for researching the POO ZOOS: there is also the potential to extract cells from the stool that can be used for the production of embryos for artificial insemination.
In 2006, the Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka discovered that some cells can be reprogrammed to other cell types such as sperm and egg cells, for which he won the Nobel Prize in 2012 in physiology or medicine. Scientists have used these newly programmed cells, which are known as induced pluripotent stem cells or IPSCs to successfully create healthy mouse dolls, and are now researching other species.
However, there are several obstacles to overcome before cells that have been isolated from the feces can be useful in the organic banks, says Williams: “The biggest challenge was that rehearsals are always clean and will always be.
According to Dr. Thomas Hildebrandt, professor of reproductive management at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany, one of the largest organic canking facilities in Europe, is “very, very challenging” and resource-intensive specimens to decontaminate specimens. Hildebrandt is not connected to the POO zoo, but has worked with Williams on previous projects, including a meal fertility.
“I think this type of technology offers you important information about the genetic pattern of this animal and possibly even health,” says Hildebrandt. However, it is skeptical that the cell quality for IPSC is ever sufficiently clean and fears that the faecal contamination could change the “epigenetic profile” – if environmental factors change the functioning of genes. When creating embryos, he adds: “We should start with the best cells.”
Most organic deposits are currently collected by prisoners, says Hildebrandt. Veterinarians regularly occupy blood samples when animals feel uncomfortable, which can be used for organic landing. Although blood is “much more difficult” to extract cells than a skin biopsy, it is easy compared to feces.
While collecting wild animals could contribute to the variety of organic canking collection, according to Hildebrandt, there are many strangers, including diseases that could make samples unsuitable.
Despite his skepticism, Hildebrandt hopes that the project will lead to results. “I think science can deliver new solutions, and sometimes the solution is not so obvious,” he says.
Diversity
Elephants are one of the species that Chester Zoo regularly collects fecal samples from which health understands better. – Chester zoo
While the use of these cells is still far away in organic canking, Bolton and Williams believe that the POO ZOO could be an inexpensive solution to collect genetic data in both zoos and wilderness, and now examine more types to refine their methodology.
“We lose the biological diversity with an absolutely alarming and terrible speed, and species do not survive unless they are genetically diverse,” says Bolton. “A non-invasive option can expand this scope. It can ensure that more cells are collected and more diversity is saved.”
The current rapid loss of wild animals and ecosystems is sometimes referred to as the “sixth extinction”. If animal populations are insulated smaller and isolated from other groups, an inbreeding occurs more likely. This reduces genetic diversity, makes animals less resistant to threats such as diseases and climate change and increases the likelihood that negative characteristics occur.
A recently carried out meta -analysis showed that the genetic diversity decreases over hundreds of species and concerns two thirds of the analyzed wild animals. Another study that used more statistical analyzes than DNA samples showed that 58% of the species in his research pool did not have enough populations to maintain genetic diversity.
“More genetic diversity makes the population of animals more robust, they can better resist diseases,” says Williams.
Williams sees applications for technology for all types because extinction occur more often.
“I would never have to do something of this work, and so that the world is a beautiful place where animals are not endangered and people don’t hunt them,” says Williams. “If that were an option against that, I would stop there. But that’s not it. That’s why we do this kind of work that I think is very, very important.”
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