Researchers believe tool can help them better monitor population sizes and habitats
A gene-editing tool that has led to new cancer therapies and a rapid test for COVID-19 is now helping scientists find endangered species of salmon in the San Francisco Bay.
The CRISPR-based Sherlock tool can identify four types of Chinook salmon, including Sacramento winter-run and Central Valley spring-run, which are both protected under the U.S. federal Endangered Species Act.
"The Chinook are a great fit actually because all of the runs, more or less, look the same," said Andrea Schreier, an adjunct associate professor at the University of California Davis and co-author of a study published last year in Molecular Ecology Resources that examined using this genetic identification on the endangered Delta smelt.
Scientists use gene-splicing tool to ID endangered salmon in California
A gene-editing tool that has led to new cancer therapies and a rapid test for COVID-19 is now helping scientists find endangered species of salmon in the San Francisco Bay.
The CRISPR-based Sherlock tool can identify four types of Chinook salmon, including Sacramento winter-run and Central Valley spring-run, which are both protected under the U.S. federal Endangered Species Act.
"The Chinook are a great fit actually because all of the runs, more or less, look the same," said Andrea Schreier, an adjunct associate professor at the University of California Davis and co-author of a study published last year in Molecular Ecology Resources that examined using this genetic identification on the endangered Delta smelt.
Scientists use gene-splicing tool to ID endangered salmon in California