DNA METABARCODING: THE FUTURE OF DIET TRACKING?

Koelewijn, Jaron (2022) DNA METABARCODING: THE FUTURE OF DIET TRACKING? Bachelor's Thesis, Biology.

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Abstract

Diet tracking is at the core of ecological animal research. However, current methods are expensive, labor-intensive, and time-consuming. So, there is a need for new methods. DNA metabarcoding is an upcoming new method. Metabarcoding uses gut content or feces to look at the DNA of prey. Specifically, it looks at conserved regions in the DNA like, e.g., the Cytochrome Oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene to identify species. Metabarcoding is potentially cheaper, less labor-intensive, and better for the researched animals, but the method also has potential biases. This review investigates if metabarcoding can be used for diet research in insectivorous birds. First, we address the general workflow of metabarcoding and highlight the potential biases. Then we look at how metabarcoding performs compared with traditional methods through the literature. It was found that metabarcoding generally performs better than traditional methods. Using metabarcoding, more taxa were identified and to a taxonomic level that is often impossible for traditional methods. However, we also found that metabarcoding can be improved. The reference databases are not yet covering all species and using single marker genes often led to under-identification compared to using multiple marker genes. Altogether we conclude that metabarcoding is a suitable method for diet research in insectivorous birds, provided that a researcher considers potential biases.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor's Thesis)
Supervisor name:	Both, C.
Degree programme:	Biology
Thesis type:	Bachelor's Thesis
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	26 Jul 2022 09:26
Last Modified:	26 Jul 2022 09:26
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/28148

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