Marine DNA Fragments Reveal Surprising Clues and May Change Investigations of Missing Military Personnel at Sea

Written by Caio Aviz

Published on 08/11/2025 at 17:35

Mergulhadores realizam coletas de sedimentos junto aos destroços do Grumman TBF Avenger, abatido na Batalha de Saipan em 1944, para análise de DNA ambiental utilizada em investigações da DPAA.

Be the first to react!

How DNA Emerged as a Promising Scientific Tool

Between 1944 and 2024, the search for over 40,000 missing American military personnel at sea spurred research that uses environmental DNA (eDNA) to locate human remains in shipwrecks, thereby expanding investigative methods of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and strengthening underwater strategies.
DNA gathers genetic fragments released in water and sediments; the technique allows for the detection of degraded human DNA without immediate excavations.
Thus, the team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) began collections between 2022 and 2023 in Saipan, in Lake Huron, and in the Mediterranean.
The goal was to differentiate ancient sequences from recent sequences.
Similar research has existed since 2008, when French scientists detected the invasive bullfrog through eDNA.
This was the first test directly applied to military wrecks.

The Case of the Avenger Shot Down in the Battle of Saipan in 1944

A Grumman TBF Avenger, shot down during the Battle of Saipan in 1944, became the focus of the study because two crew members remain missing.
The coral-encrusted plane lies in shallow lagoon waters.
This location allowed for the collection of sediments and water by Calvin Mires, a marine archaeologist from WHOI.
The researchers identified short fragments of human DNA.
The fragments suggest a possible presence of human remains.

80 Million-Year-Old Marine Crocodile Is Found in Egypt and Reveals a Hidden Secret of Evolution After the End of Dinosaurs

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
See also

Operation Atlas gathered 2,500 marines, armored vehicles, helicopters, fighter jets, anti-tank missiles, and kamikaze drones in a demonstration of firepower in the Cerrado, while the Navy, Army, and Air Force tested coordinated actions in a tactical scenario presented to the Minister of Defense.

Brazil erects a digital wall along 16,886 km of borders with 10 countries, using sensors, radars, military communications, and the Army’s decision-making system to protect one of the largest land stretches on the planet and showcase the technological strength of national defense.

Brazilian warship crosses the North Atlantic on a historic 85-day mission, sailing alongside more than 60 warships, aircraft, and amphibious troops, heading to the largest naval review in U.S. history with over 100 military vessels, and carries the Brazilian Navy flag to the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of American Independence.

The Brazilian Army is about to finalize one of the largest military purchases in recent years with Italy, consisting of 96 Centauro 2 armored vehicles with 120 mm cannons and three anti-aircraft batteries unprecedented in the country, including armed drones under negotiation.

How Samples Were Collected and Analyzed

The team faced logistical challenges during collections in 2022 and 2023.
The airline refused to transport the samples with dry ice.
However, the samples were taken to Guam and stored properly.
They were then sent to the Biotechnology Center at the University of Wisconsin.
Charles Konsitzke confirmed that the preservation remained adequate.
Between 2023 and 2024, researchers conducted complete metagenomic sequencing.
They separated fragments shorter than 150 base pairs.
These fragments represent ancient DNA, as explained by Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser from WHOI.

Key Findings and Unexpected Patterns

Locations in Saipan and Palermo showed a high abundance of short fragments.
However, cold and deep environments like Lake Huron exhibited more ancient human DNA at control sites than at suspected areas.
Geneticist Elena Irene Zavala from the University of Copenhagen suggested that human DNA is widely dispersed in the marine environment.
She noted that preservation is greater in low-temperature areas.
Microbial patterns revealed genes linked to glycosaminoglycans.
These molecules are common in animal tissues.

Limitations, Need for Excavation, and Next Steps

No human remains appeared during the study, thus preventing definitive conclusions about the match between fragments and remains.
Therefore, additional excavations become necessary to confirm areas of higher genetic abundance.
The report delivered in April 2024 recommended interventions at three sites, although the DPAA is still assessing continuity.
Meanwhile, Jesse Stephen, the DPAA’s Director of Innovation, stated that eDNA serves as an investigative tool, thus unable to identify individuals, but useful for prioritizing critical regions.

Marine DNA Fragments Reveal Surprising Clues and May Change Investigations of Missing Military Personnel at Sea

How DNA Emerged as a Promising Scientific Tool

The Case of the Avenger Shot Down in the Battle of Saipan in 1944

How Samples Were Collected and Analyzed

Key Findings and Unexpected Patterns

Limitations, Need for Excavation, and Next Steps

With billions in loans, China is rebuilding Nigeria’s railway network from scratch, abandoning the British colonial tracks that have turned to scrap and creating a corridor of over 1,300 km to take the load off the roads of Africa’s largest economy.

Forget petroleum-based asphalt: a Scottish company transforms 684,000 plastic bottles into one kilometer of road that is 60% more resistant and up to 10 times more durable, and the technology has already started replacing traditional asphalt in more than 30 countries.

China is building an artificial island in the middle of the sea, covering 20 km², to construct the largest offshore airport in the world, the Dalian Jinzhouwan. This $4.3 billion project is anchored on more than 3,000 pillars embedded in the rock beneath the ocean and is scheduled to open in 2035.

Austrian engineers have developed an inflatable concrete technology that transforms flat slabs into domes using only air pressure, eliminating scaffolding and temporary forms, and potentially changing the way bridges, tunnels, and curved roofs are constructed worldwide.

A robot named Walter does the work of five bricklayers per hour and can save the construction industry, where the average age of professionals is 46 years and almost no one wants to learn the trade anymore, in the United Kingdom.

Spain installs two giant pipelines 2.2 km off the coast to draw water from the Mediterranean and supply a megafacility capable of producing 200 million liters of drinking water per day.

A 250-ton transformer traveled 1,929 km by road in India on a slow and planned journey that demonstrates how the power grid relies on giant loads, detours, and impossible routes for regular trucks.

The largest car carrier ship in the world will unload 7,200 BYD cars at the SC Port in June, but before that, an Italian ship will arrive this Tuesday with another 4,500 vehicles, totaling 11,700 cars, 150 workers, and a 24-hour non-stop operation at the Port of Itajaí.

African country launched a $145 million project to rehabilitate 35 dams and drill deep wells seeking water stored for millennia beneath the desert, a plan that Captain Ibrahim Traoré’s government presents as a path to the country’s water sovereignty.

A 400-meter colossus powered by natural gas has just set sail from Shanghai to Europe, carrying over 24,000 containers. It is the world’s largest dual-fuel container ship and can cross the planet without refueling even once.

The largest highway concession company in Brazil already belongs to an Italian group, and now the railway sector may be next to receive billions in investments from Italy amid the progress of the Mercosur and European Union agreement.

A new study overturns the central idea we learned about planets and suggests that Earth is the exception rather than the rule; most rocky worlds in the galaxy may not have a core or mantle, just a single turbulent fluid extending to the center.

Marine DNA Fragments Reveal Surprising Clues and May Change Investigations of Missing Military Personnel at Sea

How DNA Emerged as a Promising Scientific Tool

The Case of the Avenger Shot Down in the Battle of Saipan in 1944

How Samples Were Collected and Analyzed

Key Findings and Unexpected Patterns

Limitations, Need for Excavation, and Next Steps

With billions in loans, China is rebuilding Nigeria’s railway network from scratch, abandoning the British colonial tracks that have turned to scrap and creating a corridor of over 1,300 km to take the load off the roads of Africa’s largest economy.

Forget petroleum-based asphalt: a Scottish company transforms 684,000 plastic bottles into one kilometer of road that is 60% more resistant and up to 10 times more durable, and the technology has already started replacing traditional asphalt in more than 30 countries.

China is building an artificial island in the middle of the sea, covering 20 km², to construct the largest offshore airport in the world, the Dalian Jinzhouwan. This $4.3 billion project is anchored on more than 3,000 pillars embedded in the rock beneath the ocean and is scheduled to open in 2035.

Austrian engineers have developed an inflatable concrete technology that transforms flat slabs into domes using only air pressure, eliminating scaffolding and temporary forms, and potentially changing the way bridges, tunnels, and curved roofs are constructed worldwide.

A robot named Walter does the work of five bricklayers per hour and can save the construction industry, where the average age of professionals is 46 years and almost no one wants to learn the trade anymore, in the United Kingdom.

Spain installs two giant pipelines 2.2 km off the coast to draw water from the Mediterranean and supply a megafacility capable of producing 200 million liters of drinking water per day.

A 250-ton transformer traveled 1,929 km by road in India on a slow and planned journey that demonstrates how the power grid relies on giant loads, detours, and impossible routes for regular trucks.

Operation Atlas gathered 2,500 marines, armored vehicles, helicopters, fighter jets, anti-tank missiles, and kamikaze drones in a demonstration of firepower in the Cerrado, while the Navy, Army, and Air Force tested coordinated actions in a tactical scenario presented to the Minister of Defense.

Brazil erects a digital wall along 16,886 km of borders with 10 countries, using sensors, radars, military communications, and the Army’s decision-making system to protect one of the largest land stretches on the planet and showcase the technological strength of national defense.

The Brazilian Army is about to finalize one of the largest military purchases in recent years with Italy, consisting of 96 Centauro 2 armored vehicles with 120 mm cannons and three anti-aircraft batteries unprecedented in the country, including armed drones under negotiation.

Students drop out of ESA after reports of sergeants driving for Uber, and a silent crisis in the Armed Forces begins to worry candidates in 2026

The largest car carrier ship in the world will unload 7,200 BYD cars at the SC Port in June, but before that, an Italian ship will arrive this Tuesday with another 4,500 vehicles, totaling 11,700 cars, 150 workers, and a 24-hour non-stop operation at the Port of Itajaí.

African country launched a $145 million project to rehabilitate 35 dams and drill deep wells seeking water stored for millennia beneath the desert, a plan that Captain Ibrahim Traoré’s government presents as a path to the country’s water sovereignty.

A 400-meter colossus powered by natural gas has just set sail from Shanghai to Europe, carrying over 24,000 containers. It is the world’s largest dual-fuel container ship and can cross the planet without refueling even once.

The largest highway concession company in Brazil already belongs to an Italian group, and now the railway sector may be next to receive billions in investments from Italy amid the progress of the Mercosur and European Union agreement.

A new study overturns the central idea we learned about planets and suggests that Earth is the exception rather than the rule; most rocky worlds in the galaxy may not have a core or mantle, just a single turbulent fluid extending to the center.