CEO John Higley Presents at IAGLR2021 (International Association for Great Lakes Research)

ABSTRACT: J.S. Higley, EQO, Inc. Environmental RNA for Remote, Non-Disruptive, Identification and Population Activity Analyses. Recent advancements in the preservation of environmental RNA (eRNA) has opened new and exciting opportunities for the analysis of invasive and native species in aquatic ecosystems. Where eDNA allows for an increased ability to perform risk management and track broad trends in populations of interest, eRNA, which breaks down quickly in the environment, can be utilized to determine which genes are being transcribed at the time of collection. Questions like: Is there a currently living population present? Is the population about to spawn or actively spawning? Is the population responding to stress? and more are able to be answered. In this presentation, we will show applications of this technology in invasive species management and look ahead to new projects being explored for inter- and intra-species transcriptomic analyses for better ecosystem management.