Improving plant DNA metabarcoding accuracy with ecological filters and Angiosperms353: Field and pollen microscopy validation.

ABSTRACT:

Premise

Metabarcoding has become a successful tool for the identification of species in ecological assemblages. However, the usefulness of metabarcoding for identifying plant species has been hampered due to a lack of universal gene regions that work across all taxa, limiting the applications of metabarcoding in ecology.

Methods

Here, we outline a spatiotemporal approach that combines Angiosperms353 baits with species distribution models and phenological analyses to generate a list of candidate species to increase metabarcoding accuracy. To evaluate the ecological realism of our framework, we compared the results of DNA metabarcoding pollen loads of wild bumble bees to long-term field observations of bee-plant interactions and visual pollen identification.

Results

We

SUBMITTER: Benkendorf RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12542809 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep-Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature