Combining morpho-taxonomy and metabarcoding enhances the detection of non-indigenous marine pests in biofouling communities.

ABSTRACT: Marine infrastructure can favor the spread of non-indigenous marine biofouling species by providing a suitable habitat for them to proliferate. Cryptic organisms or those in early life stages can be difficult to distinguish by conventional morphological taxonomy. Molecular tools, such as metabarcoding, may improve their detection. In this study, the ability of morpho-taxonomy and metabarcoding (18S rRNA and COI) using three reference databases (PR2, BOLD and NCBI) to characterize biodiversity and detect non-indigenous species (NIS) in biofouling was compared on 60 passive samplers deployed over summer and winter in a New Zealand marina. Highest resolution of metazoan taxa was identified using 18S rRNA assigned to PR2. There were higher assignment rates to NCBI reference sequences, but poor

SUBMITTER: Ammon UV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6215007 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature