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Age Is Just a Number: No Impacts of Scat Ageing on Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Genotyping Using a Target Capture
Alexis L Levengood1,2, Katrin Hohwieler1,2, Daniel Powell1,3
1Detection Dogs for Conservation, School of Science, Technology, and Engineering University of the Sunshine Coast Sippy Downs Queensland Australia.
Ecology and Evolution
|July 11, 2025
Summary
Koala scat age did not significantly impact DNA genotyping quality within the first 10 days. Targeted genotyping methods like DArTCap can yield high-quality data from non-invasive samples, even when degraded.
Area of Science:
- Conservation genetics
- Wildlife ecology
- Evolutionary biology
Background:
- Wildlife genetic studies increasingly use low-quality DNA from non-invasive samples.
- Environmental exposure time (sample age) can affect DNA quality and downstream analyses.
- Understanding DNA degradation in wild-collected samples is crucial for reliable genetic data.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of koala scat age on DNA quality and genotyping success.
- To evaluate the performance of DArTCap targeted genotyping on aged non-invasive samples.
- To determine the impact of environmental exposure on DNA integrity for genetic analysis.
Main Methods:
- Koala scats were aged under natural conditions.
- DNA degradation was quantified.
- Genotyping quality was assessed by measuring missing single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data using DArTCap.
Main Results:
- Koala scat age was not a significant predictor of genotyping quality within the first 10 days.
- High-quality genetic data was obtained from 10-day-old scats.
- Variability in data quality was observed, with some fresh scats yielding low-quality data.
Conclusions:
- Targeted genotyping, such as DArTCap, is effective for analyzing DNA from koala scats.
- Scat age may not limit genetic data acquisition within the initial 10 days of environmental exposure.
- These findings support the use of targeted genotyping for non-invasive samples, potentially increasing sample sizes for conservation and ecological studies.
