DNA-based diet analysis for any predator.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Prey DNA from diet samples can be used as a dietary marker; yet current methods for prey detection require a priori diet knowledge and/or are designed ad hoc, limiting their scope. I present a general approach to detect diverse prey in the feces or gut contents of predators.

Methodology/principal findings

In the example outlined, I take advantage of the restriction site for the endonuclease Pac I which is present in 16S mtDNA of most Odontoceti mammals, but absent from most other relevant non-mammalian chordates and invertebrates. Thus in DNA extracted from feces of these mammalian predators Pac I will cleave and exclude predator DNA from a small region targeted by novel universal primers, while most prey DNA remain intact allowing prey selective PCR. The method w

SUBMITTER: Dunshea G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2668750 | biostudies-literature | 2009

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature