Genetic identification of mammalian meal source in dung beetle gut contents
Genetic identification of mammalian meal source in dung beetle gut contents
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DOI：
10.3109/24701394.2016.1155120
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发表时间：
2017-09-01
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Kolokotronis, Sergios-Orestis
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Gomez, Andres;Kolokotronis, Sergios-Orestis
粪食性蜣螂是数量和功能上都很重要的类群。他们强制性使用哺乳动物粪便具有广泛的生态影响，包括提供经济和流行病学相关的生态系统服务。甲虫-哺乳动物生态网络在决定蜣螂群落的恢复力和甲虫介导的生态系统功能的供应方面至关重要。然而，我们对蜣螂营养网络的理解仍然是不完整的。在这里，我们报告的试点研究，以评估有效性的DNA为基础的分析，确定来源的蜣螂餐。使用从已知来源的粪堆中收集的甲虫，我们假设肠道内容物的分子分析将正确识别哺乳动物宿主，并且甲虫身体大小将增加成功检测哺乳动物DNA的几率。我们分析了90个标本属于6种甲虫。大多数样品产生预期的哺乳动物物种的mtDNA序列，这表明这些方法可以是一个有效的工具，用于调查的蜣螂饮食。
Coprophagous dung beetles are a numerically and functionally important group. Their obligatory use of mammalian dung has broad ecological implications, including providing economically and epidemiologically relevant ecosystem services. Beetle-mammal ecological networks are critically important in determining the resilience of dung beetle communities and the supply of beetle-mediated ecosystem functions. However, our understanding of dung beetle trophic networks remains incomplete. Here we report on a pilot study to evaluate the effectiveness of DNA-based analyses in identifying the source of dung beetle meals. Using beetles collected from dung piles of known provenance, we hypothesized that molecular analysis of gut content would correctly identify the mammal host, and that beetle body size would increase the odds of successful detection of mammalian DNA. We analyzed 90 specimens belonging to six beetle species. Most samples yielded mtDNA sequences from the expected mammalian species, suggesting that these methods can be an efficient tool for the investigation of dung beetle diet.