Spider webs as eDNA samplers: Biodiversity assessment across the tree of life

The concept of environmental DNA (eDNA) utilizes nucleic acids of organisms directly from the environment. Recent breakthrough studies have successfully detected a wide spectrum of prokaryotic and eukaryotic eDNA from a variety of environments, ranging from ancient to modern, and from terrestrial to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular ecology resources 2022-10, Vol.22 (7), p.2534-2545
Main Authors: Gregorič, Matjaž, Kutnjak, Denis, Bačnik, Katarina, Gostinčar, Cene, Pecman, Anja, Ravnikar, Maja, Kuntner, Matjaž, Bonin, Aurélie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biodiversity
biodiversity monitoring
Biofilters
Environmental DNA
metabarcoding
microbial communities
Nucleic acids
Samplers
Spatial data
Spiders
Tracking
Webs
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Summary:The concept of environmental DNA (eDNA) utilizes nucleic acids of organisms directly from the environment. Recent breakthrough studies have successfully detected a wide spectrum of prokaryotic and eukaryotic eDNA from a variety of environments, ranging from ancient to modern, and from terrestrial to aquatic. With their diversity and ubiquity in nature, spider webs might act as powerful biofilters and could thus represent a promising new source of eDNA, but their utility under natural field conditions is severely understudied. Here, we bridge this knowledge gap to establish spider webs as a source of eDNA with far reaching implications. First, we conducted a field study to track specific arthropod targets from different spider webs. We then used high‐throughput amplicon sequencing of taxonomic barcodes to investigate the utility of spider web eDNA for biodiversity monitoring of animals, fungi and bacteria. Our results show that genetic remains on spider webs allow the detection of even the smallest target organisms. We also demonstrate that eDNA from spider webs is useful in research of community compositions across the different domains of life, with potentially highly detailed temporal and spatial information.
ISSN:1755-098X
1755-0998
DOI:10.1111/1755-0998.13629