Developing and testing metabarcoding approaches to describe the vertebrate diversity within aquatic habitats

开发和测试元条形码方法来描述水生栖息地内的脊椎动物多样性

• 批准号: 523760-2018
• 负责人: Cristescu, Melania
• 金额: $ 1.6万
• 依托单位: McGill University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=678565
• 关键词: Developing; testing; metabarcoding; approaches; describe

Traditional methods for surveying aquatic communities are often costly, destructive and ineffective. The Canadian federal government spends more than $500M per year on environmental monitoring activities which involve more than 2500 people (estimate based on December 2011 report of the Canadian Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development). Industries spend an additional $300M on environmental monitoring. For example, our industrial partner, WSP Canada Inc. spends about $750,000 per year to monitor fish communities in impacted habitats. Molecular methods based on DNA isolated from environmental samples (eDNA) can considerably lower the costs of aquatic ecosystem assessment, particularly when assessing rare and endangered species. To date, significant attention has been placed on refining eDNA-based techniques to accurately capture and sequence the DNA released in the environment and to accurately determine the species present. However, we are still missing information on the "behaviour" of eDNA - how it is created, transported and degraded. These processes influence the chance of accurately determining species presence from molecular samples. For example, few studies have examined the role of seasonal water movements in lakes and how this influences the distribution of eDNA. We propose to sample dimictic lakes during summer months when water is stratification and during spring and autumn water turnover. We will sample the water column to create an eDNA depth profile and will validate the method using radio-telemetry tagging of lake trout. The proposed study will contribute to our understanding of the "ecology" of eDNA and its distribution within lentic systems. Moreover, this study will help WSP plan eDNA sampling campaigns, by taking into consideration how seasonal water movements influences the distribution of DNA molecules. Our results will be also applicable to anyone undertaking a comprehensive eDNA sampling campaign, such as academics, industry and government.

传统的调查水生生物群落的方法往往成本高、破坏性大、效率低。加拿大联邦政府每年花费超过5亿加元用于环境监测活动，涉及2500多人（根据加拿大环境和可持续发展专员2011年12月的报告估计）。工业界在环境监测方面额外花费3亿美元。例如，我们的工业合作伙伴WSP Canada Inc.每年花费约75万美元监测受影响栖息地的鱼类群落。基于从环境样品中分离的DNA（eDNA）的分子方法可以大大降低水生生态系统评估的成本，特别是在评估稀有和濒危物种时。到目前为止，人们一直非常关注改进基于eDNA的技术，以准确捕获和测序环境中释放的DNA，并准确确定存在的物种。然而，我们仍然缺少关于eDNA“行为”的信息--它是如何产生、运输和降解的。这些过程影响从分子样本中准确确定物种存在的机会。例如，很少有研究考察湖泊中季节性水运动的作用以及这如何影响eDNA的分布。我们建议在夏季的水分层和春季和秋季的水周转期间，对双混合湖泊进行采样。我们将对水柱进行采样，以创建eDNA深度剖面，并将使用湖鳟鱼的无线电遥测标记来验证该方法。拟议的研究将有助于我们了解的“生态学”的eDNA和它的分布在lentic系统。此外，这项研究将帮助WSP计划eDNA采样活动，考虑到季节性水运动如何影响DNA分子的分布。我们的结果也将适用于任何从事全面eDNA采样活动的人，如学术界、工业界和政府。