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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
1. DNA metabarcoding is widely used to characterize the diet of species, and it becomes
very relevant for biodiversity conservation, allowing the understanding
of trophic chains and the impact of invasive species. The need for cost-effective
biodiversity monitoring methods fostered advances in this technique. One question
that arises is which sample type provides a better diet representation.
2. Therefore, with this study, we intended to evaluate if there were differences
in diet estimates according to the section of the gastrointestinal tract analysed
and which section(s) provided the best diet representation. Additionally, we intended
to infer the ecological/economic impacts of an invader as a model of the
potential effects in an originally mammal-free
ecosystem.
3. We examined the gut contents of the house mouse Mus musculus introduced to
Cabo Verde, considering three sections: stomach, small intestine, and large intestine.
We applied a DNA-metabarcoding
approach using two genetic markers,
one specific for plants and another for invertebrates.
4. We showed that this invader consumed 131 taxa (73 plants and 58 invertebrates).
We obtained significant differences in the composition of two of the three sections,
with a higher incidence of invertebrates in the stomach and plants in the
intestines. This may be due to stomach inhibitors acting on plants and/or to faster
absorption of soft-body
invertebrates compared to the plant fibers in the intestines.
We verified that the impact of this invader in the ecosystem is predominantly
negative, as at least 50% of the ingested items were native, endemic, or
economically important taxa, and only 19% of the diet items were exotics 5. Overall, results showed the need to analyse only two gastrointestinal tract sections
to obtain robust diet data, increasing the cost-effectiveness
of the method.
Furthermore, by uncovering the native taxa most frequently preyed on by mice,
this DNA-metabarcoding
approach allowed us to evaluate efficiently which are
at the highest risk
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Cabo Verde Islands diet gastrointestinal tract house mouse invasive species invertebrates next-generation sequencing plants
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Ecology and Evolution. 2022;12:e8638
Publisher
Wiley