Genfu Yagi

Abstract Environmental DNA technology has revolutionized biomonitoring, primarily capturing the presence/absence of target taxa. Recent advances have revealed that eDNA also retains epigenetic signatures. In this perspective, we focus on DNA methylation signals in eDNA, which we define as meth-eDNA, and analyze three pivotal topics: (1) Detection of methylation signals in eDNA, (2) stability in aquatic environment, and (3) applications as ecological indicators.

1 INTRODUCTION Life history is a crucial factor that determines the ecology of animal species, and each species exhibits a specific life-history strategy. Understanding life history is also necessary for wildlife management because data on age at maturity, age-related changes in reproductive success, number of calves over a lifespan and longevity should be collected to predict population dynamic parameters.