DNA metabarcoding of spiders, insects, and springtails for exploring potential linkage between above- and below-ground food webs.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Understanding feedback between above- and below-ground processes of biological communities is a key to the effective management of natural and agricultural ecosystems. However, as above- and below-ground food webs are often studied separately, our knowledge of material flow and community dynamics in terrestrial ecosystems remains limited.

Results

We developed a high-throughput sequencing method for examining how spiders link above- and below-ground food webs as generalist predators. To overcome problems related to DNA-barcoding-based analyses of arthropod-arthropod interactions, we designed spider-specific blocking primers and Hexapoda-specific primers for the selective PCR amplification of Hexapoda prey sequences from spider samples. By applying the new DNA metab

SUBMITTER: Toju H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5815251 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature