Evaluation of marine zooplankton community structure through environmental DNA metabarcoding.

ABSTRACT: Zooplankton dominate the abundance and biomass of multicellular animals in pelagic marine environments; however, traditional methods to characterize zooplankton communities are invasive and laborious. This study compares zooplankton taxonomic composition revealed through metabarcoding of the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and 18S rRNA genes to traditional morphological identification by microscopy. Triplicates of three different sample types were collected from three coral reef sites in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary: (1) 1 L surface seawater samples prefiltered through 3 μm filters and subsequently collected on 0.22 μm filters for eDNA (PF-eDNA); (2) 1 L surface seawater samples filtered on 0.22 μm pore-size filters (environmental DNA; eDNA), and (3) zooplankt

SUBMITTER: Djurhuus A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5993268 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature