No worming out of the worminess in mescalA Canadian study shows even if you don’t swallow the worm at the bottom of a bottle of the Mexican liquor mescal, you may not have avoided the worm’s DNA.
Researchers at the University of Guelph’s Biodiversity Institute of Ontario say they’ve determined the distilled alcoholic beverage itself contains the DNA of the agave butterfly caterpillar — the famous “worm” that many avoid consuming.
The study was a test of the hypothesis that DNA from a preserved specimen can leak into its preservative liquid. As part of their study, they tested a sample of liquid from a bottle of mescal. The liquor was found to contain DNA that was related to the agave family.
“This is a surprising result,” said research team member Assistant Professor Mehrdad Hajibabaei, who said mescal contains only 40 percent ethanol and potentially many impurities that can degrade DNA.
“Showing that the DNA of a preserved specimen can be obtained from the preservative liquid introduces a range of important possibilities,” Hajibabaei said. “We can develop inexpensive, high-throughput, field-friendly and non-invasive genetic analysis protocols for situations where the original tissue cannot be touched or when there is simply no sample left for analysis.”
The scientists also successfully identified other specimens contained in preservative ethanol, including whole insects and plant leaves.
Their findings will appear in the March issue of the journal BioTechniques.
