Researchers have found a better and highly resourceful way to get the DNA samples that they need for genetic testing from dolphins and others aquatic animals. Until recently, samples were collected using dart guns from captive and wild dolphins, whales, and porpoises. Recently, researchers have found a more humane way to get the samples they need, replacing the old dart gun methods which are dangerous to the animals and required great skill to avoid injuring the mammals. Additionally, researchers were not able to use this method to extract samples from young or smaller mammals. Now they have begun to capture DNA tissue from the blowhole of the dolphins.
This technique requires the researchers to hold a test tube over the blowhole of the mammal to collect the excretions. Many captive dolphins have even been trained to exhale on cue. Then researchers took blood samples and compared them to the collected blow. The samples were identical and therefore proved that dolphin blow is just as effective as a test sample as the actual blood. This research application has been taken into a wild population in Australia and proven to also be successful in the wild.
Why would a viable and less invasive mode of DNA collection be important for health medicine? One reason is that the dolphin brain is of great interest to human genome researchers because it is the second largest in mass to the human brain based upon body size. Their brains are large and complex with personalities and behaviors that rival that of higher primate species. Scientists have often marveled at the dolphin’s intelligence and unsurpassed intuition when encountering their human counterparts.
The ability to easily collect DNA information from these amazing creatures opens the doors for comparative studies that just might shed light on how the human brain functions and malfunctions which could lead to insights and cures for brain and personality disorders in humans.
