RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Spider webs as eDNA tool for biodiversity assessment of life’s domains
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.07.18.209999
DO 10.1101/2020.07.18.209999
A1 Gregorič, Matjaž
A1 Kutnjak, Denis
A1 Bačnik, Katarina
A1 Gostinčar, Cene
A1 Pecman, Anja
A1 Ravnikar, Maja
A1 Kuntner, Matjaž
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/07/19/2020.07.18.209999.abstract
AB The concept of environmental DNA (eDNA) utilizes nucleic acids of organisms directly from the environment. Recent breakthrough studies have successfully detected a wide spectrum of prokaryotic and eukaryotic eDNA from a variety of environments, ranging from ancient to modern, and from terrestrial to aquatic. These numerous sources promise to establish eDNA as a tool for diverse scientific settings. Here, we propose and establish spider webs as a source of eDNA with far reaching implications. First, we conducted a field study to track specific arthropod targets from different spider webs. We then employed high-throughput amplicon sequencing of taxonomic barcodes to investigate the utility of spider web eDNA for biodiversity monitoring of animals, fungi and bacteria. Our results show that genetic remains on spider webs allow the detection of even the smallest target organisms. We also demonstrate that eDNA from spider webs is useful in research of community compositions in different domains of life, with potentially highly detailed temporal and spatial information.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.