Poster Details
EXPANDING GENETIC RESOURCES TO SUPPORT SPECIES DETECTION AND BIODIVERSITY MONITORING USING ENVIRONMENTAL DNA
Due to challenges with detection of rare or difficult to sample species and the expansion of genetic technologies, fisheries professionals are increasingly augmenting fish biodiversity studies with emerging eDNA techniques. Using environmentally collected DNA samples, presence/absence can be assessed either for single species (qPCR) or multiple species (metabarcoding). However, both assessment methods depend on a tissue archive and reference sequences for marker design and testing. To facilitate marker design and testing, the USFWS Northeast Fishery Center is developing a tissue archive and conducting mitochondrial DNA reference sequencing. The tissue archive provides DNA marker testing and source material for mitochondrial genome sequencing. In turn, these sequence data support marker design and serve as a reference dataset for species identification in metabarcoding studies. Using custom-designed family-specific long-range PCR primer sets, we are expanding the representation of mitochondrial genomes from freshwater fish, with specific emphasis in the Great Lakes region. To date, 136 mitochondrial genomes representing 55 species from 9 different fish families have been successfully sequenced, all of which are publically available through GenBank. Increased availability of mitochondrial genomes will help diversify future applications of eDNA sampling.
Julie C. Schroeter (Primary Presenter/Author), United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Northeast Fishery Center, julie_schroeter@fws.gov;
Aaron P. Maloy (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Northeast Fishery Center, aaron_maloy@fws.gov;
Christopher B. Rees (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Northeast Fishery Center, Christopher_Rees@fws.gov;
Meredith L. Bartron (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Northeast Fishery Center, meredith_bartron@fws.gov;