TY - JOUR
T1 - Debugging diversity – a pan-continental exploration of the potential of terrestrial blood-feeding leeches as a vertebrate monitoring tool
AU - Schnell, Ida Bærholm
AU - Bohmann, Kristine
AU - Schultze, Sebastian E.
AU - Richter, Stine R.
AU - Murray, Dáithí C.
AU - Sinding, Mikkel Holger S.
AU - Bass, David
AU - Cadle, John E.
AU - Campbell, Mason J.
AU - Dolch, Rainer
AU - Edwards, David P.
AU - Gray, Thomas N.E.
AU - Hansen, Teis
AU - Hoa, Anh Nguyen Quang
AU - Noer, Christina Lehmkuhl
AU - Heise-Pavlov, Sigrid
AU - Sander Pedersen, Adam F.
AU - Ramamonjisoa, Juliot Carl
AU - Siddall, Mark E.
AU - Tilker, Andrew
AU - Traeholt, Carl
AU - Wilkinson, Nicholas
AU - Woodcock, Paul
AU - Yu, Douglas W.
AU - Bertelsen, Mads Frost
AU - Bunce, Michael
AU - Gilbert, M. Thomas P.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) has become an applicable noninvasive tool with which to obtain information about biodiversity. A subdiscipline of eDNA is iDNA (invertebrate-derived DNA), where genetic material ingested by invertebrates is used to characterize the biodiversity of the species that served as hosts. While promising, these techniques are still in their infancy, as they have only been explored on limited numbers of samples from only a single or a few different locations. In this study, we investigate the suitability of iDNA extracted from more than 3,000 haematophagous terrestrial leeches as a tool for detecting a wide range of terrestrial vertebrates across five different geographical regions on three different continents. These regions cover almost the full geographical range of haematophagous terrestrial leeches, thus representing all parts of the world where this method might apply. We identify host taxa through metabarcoding coupled with high-throughput sequencing on Illumina and IonTorrent sequencing platforms to decrease economic costs and workload and thereby make the approach attractive for practitioners in conservation management. We identified hosts in four different taxonomic vertebrate classes: mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, belonging to at least 42 different taxonomic families. We find that vertebrate blood ingested by haematophagous terrestrial leeches throughout their distribution is a viable source of DNA with which to examine a wide range of vertebrates. Thus, this study provides encouraging support for the potential of haematophagous terrestrial leeches as a tool for detecting and monitoring terrestrial vertebrate biodiversity.
AB - The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) has become an applicable noninvasive tool with which to obtain information about biodiversity. A subdiscipline of eDNA is iDNA (invertebrate-derived DNA), where genetic material ingested by invertebrates is used to characterize the biodiversity of the species that served as hosts. While promising, these techniques are still in their infancy, as they have only been explored on limited numbers of samples from only a single or a few different locations. In this study, we investigate the suitability of iDNA extracted from more than 3,000 haematophagous terrestrial leeches as a tool for detecting a wide range of terrestrial vertebrates across five different geographical regions on three different continents. These regions cover almost the full geographical range of haematophagous terrestrial leeches, thus representing all parts of the world where this method might apply. We identify host taxa through metabarcoding coupled with high-throughput sequencing on Illumina and IonTorrent sequencing platforms to decrease economic costs and workload and thereby make the approach attractive for practitioners in conservation management. We identified hosts in four different taxonomic vertebrate classes: mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, belonging to at least 42 different taxonomic families. We find that vertebrate blood ingested by haematophagous terrestrial leeches throughout their distribution is a viable source of DNA with which to examine a wide range of vertebrates. Thus, this study provides encouraging support for the potential of haematophagous terrestrial leeches as a tool for detecting and monitoring terrestrial vertebrate biodiversity.
KW - high-throughput sequencing
KW - iDNA
KW - metabarcoding
KW - terrestrial haematophagous leeches
KW - vertebrate diversity
KW - vertebrate monitoring
U2 - 10.1111/1755-0998.12912
DO - 10.1111/1755-0998.12912
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 29877042
AN - SCOPUS:85050651787
VL - 18
SP - 1282
EP - 1298
JO - Molecular Ecology
JF - Molecular Ecology
SN - 0962-1083
IS - 6
ER -