Exploring and validating observations of non-local species in eDNA samples.

ABSTRACT: The development of DNA-based methods in recent decades has opened the door to numerous new lines of research in the biological sciences. While the speed and accuracy of DNA methodologies are clearly beneficial, the sensitivity of these methods has the adverse effect of increased susceptibility to false positives resulting from contamination in field or lab. Here, we present findings from a metabarcoding study on the diet of and food availability for five insectivorous birds, in which multiple lepidopteran species not known to occur locally were discovered. After describing the pattern of occurrences of these non-local species in the samples, we discuss various potential origins of these sequences. First, we assessed that the taxonomic assignments appeared reliable, and local occurrences of

SUBMITTER: Westerduin C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10576249 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature