Lurking in the water: testing eDNA metabarcoding as a tool for ecosystem-wide parasite detection.

ABSTRACT: In the light of global biodiversity change and emerging disease, there is an urgent need to establish efficient monitoring programmes of parasites in aquatic ecosystems. However, parasite identification is time-consuming, requires a high degree of taxonomic expertize and in general requires lethal sampling. The use of environmental DNA methodology to identify parasites has the potential to circumvent these limitations. This study evaluates the use of eDNA metabarcoding to detect the presence of all species of nematode and platyhelminth parasites in two New Zealand lakes. We developed two novel metabarcoding primer pairs targeting a region of cytochrome oxidase I gene (COI) specific to platyhelminths and nematodes. We successfully detected parasite DNA in both lakes. Platyhelminth DNA yield

SUBMITTER: Thomas LJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11016200 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature