Mother nature may be providing a tool to monitor biodiversity: bloodsucking leeches

The scientists were able to analyse the DNA of the blood from leeches’ meals and identify 86 vertebrates in a Chinese nature reserve

An intriguing benefit from analysing leeches is that it could allow us to pinpoint potential diseases that present a threat to humans and preemptively design vaccines

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Using modern technology, leeches have emerged as an interesting tool to monitor biodiversity. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 2:15pm, 11 Apr 2022Updated: 4:55pm, 11 Apr 2022

As environmental management becomes a more pressing problem globally, scientists working from a Chinese nature reserve may have found a creative tool to measure biodiversity in a local ecosystem: bloodsucking leeches.

The idea was to leverage advances in modern technology, specifically DNA analysis, to investigate what nature can tell us about the type of animals that live in a local ecosystem.

According to a paper published in the peer-reviewed publication Nature Communications in March, the scientists extracted DNA from the meals of leeches, which is blood. They surveyed 86 vertebrates across the 677 sq km Ailaoshan reserve in Yunnan province in southwest China.

Building on previous discoveries, the first step for the scientists was to extract the DNA from over 30,000 leeches over three months and identify the DNA of vertebrates. Then, the team began to sequence the DNA to pinpoint the exact species.

One of the animals surveyed through the leech study was the Asiatic black bear, which is a vulnerable species. Photo: Tibor Krausz

“This study shows how leech-derived DNA can be used to estimate biodiversity on a scale that makes it useful as a real-world conservation tool,” said Chris Baker, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard and one of the study’s lead authors, in an announcement release.