DNA barcoding for identification of anuran species in the central region of South America.

Ricardo Koroiva,Luís Reginaldo Ribeiro Rodrigues,Diego José Santana

doi:10.7717/peerj.10189

Abstract

The use of COI barcodes for specimen identification and species discovery has been a useful molecular approach for the study of Anura. Here, we establish a comprehensive amphibian barcode reference database in a central area of South America, in particular for specimens collected in Mato Grosso do Sul state (Brazil), and to evaluate the applicability of the COI gene for species-level identification. Both distance- and tree-based methods were applied for assessing species boundaries and the accuracy of specimen identification was evaluated. A total of 204 mitochondrial COI barcode sequences were evaluated from 22 genera and 59 species (19 newly barcoded species). Our results indicate that morphological and molecular identifications converge for most species, however, some species may present cryptic species due to high intraspecific variation, and there is a high efficiency of specimen identification. Thus, we show that COI sequencing can be used to identify anuran species present in this region.

Highlights

Anurans (Amphibia: Anura), commonly known as frogs and toads, are an extremely endangered group, with 30% of their species threatened (Vitt & Caldwell, 2014)
The cryptic characters of many species often makes the correct identification of anuran species very difficult (e.g., Funk, Caminer & Ron, 2012), which has promoted the use of molecular approaches to discovery of new species and identification by non-specialists
We present a comprehensive DNA barcode library for the identification of anuran species in the central region of South America, in particular, for the state of Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil)

Summary

Introduction

Anurans (Amphibia: Anura), commonly known as frogs and toads, are an extremely endangered group, with 30% of their species threatened (Vitt & Caldwell, 2014). In Brazil, the largest country in South America, 1,136 species of the order Anura are known, of which approximately 70% are endemic (Segalla et al, 2019; AmphibiaWeb, 2020). This country contains a wide diversity of biomes from large forest areas such as the Amazon rainforest to open grasslands like the Pampas. Two were classified as biodiversity hotspots in the seminal article by Myers and collaborators: Atlantic

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