Inadvertent human genomic bycatch and intentional capture raise beneficial  applications and ethical concerns with environmental DNA

The feld of environmental DNA (eDNA) is advancing rapidly, yet human  eDNA applications remain underutilized and underconsidered. Broader  adoption of eDNA analysis will produce many well-recognized benefts  for pathogen surveillance, biodiversity monitoring, endangered and  invasive species detection, and population genetics. Here we show that  deep-sequencing-based eDNA approaches capture genomic information  from humans (Homo sapiens) just as readily as that from the intended  target species. We term this phenomenon human genetic bycatch (HGB).  Additionally, high-quality human eDNA could be intentionally recovered  from environmental substrates (water, sand and air), holding promise for  benefcial medical, forensic and environmental applications. However,  this also raises ethical dilemmas, from consent, privacy and surveillance  to data ownership, requiring further consideration and potentially novel  regulation. We present evidence that human eDNA is readily detectable from  ‘wildlife’ environmental samples as human genetic bycatch, demonstrate  that identifable human DNA can be intentionally recovered from  human-focused environmental sampling and discuss the translational and  ethical implications of such fndings.