Monthly eDNA Monitoring of an Invasive Bryozoan, Bugulina californica, in Seawater Using Species-Specific Markers.

Tae-Joong Yoon,Sook Shin,Philjae Kim

doi:10.3390/ani11071966

Tae-Joong Yoon, Sook Shin + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11071966

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Abstract

Simple SummaryBugulina californica, marine invasive bryozoan, is hard to monitor the biomass and presence because of their habitat in underwater. Additionally, they have life stage difficult to find such as larva, and we need an effective survey method to detect whole life stages for monitoring early invasion stage. Therefore, we tried to applied environmental DNA to monitor the monthly changes of B. californica in harbors of Korea. We collect seawater environmental samples and developed a molecular target species detection method to detect B. californica DNA of monthly changes. We analyzed the environmental samples using our molecular markers and calculated the DNA copies. We determined method of environmental DNA assay as effectiveness survey technique for marine invasive species which has a non-visual life stage and spatial changes of whole biomass.Environmental DNA (eDNA) method used by many ecologists as effective investigation tool can detect endangered species, rare species, and invasive species. In case of invasive species, eDNA method help to monitor the target species when the species was hard to detect through the traditional survey such as the early stage of invasion, low abundance, and larva or juvenile stage. The bryozoan, Bugulina californica, was known as a marine fouling invasive species in Korea since its first reported in 1978. This species expanded nationwide, and damages to ascidian aquaculture through attached on the ship hulls and artificial facilities. To monitor the distribution and biomass of invasive bryozoan, B. californica, the qPCR analysis of environmental DNA was performed on seawater samples from 12 harbors. In this study, we designed species-specific markers which can calculate the detected DNA copies of B. californica, and the presence and monitoring of this species can be more accurately estimated by environmental DNA analysis than by traditional survey, in which it is difficult to identify the species. Real-time PCR analysis using environmental DNA is an effective monitoring method that can determine both the distribution and the monthly change in biomass of B. californica in Korea.

Highlights

IntroductionSuch as trapping, netting, and electrofishing in field surveys—have been used routinely for the detection of various species [4]
We examined the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for the B. californica Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis as the lowest values of the linear range covered by the standard curve we established
Monitoring of the monthly changes in DNA concentration in eDNA can be used to track increases or decreases in the abundance of the species and how various environmental factors affect the abundance of the target species, and offers advantages for managing the distribution and predicting diffusion

Summary

Introduction

Such as trapping, netting, and electrofishing in field surveys—have been used routinely for the detection of various species [4]. These methods are unsuitable for the detection of many rare species, especially in the aquatic environment, where organisms are hard to detected visually [5,6,7]. Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis using species-specific molecular markers has been suggested as a method to improve the probability of monitoring [8,9]. The combination of species-specific molecular markers and eDNA enables identification of the species at all developmental stages, the detection of species with low abundance, and the development of an efficient and appropriate system providing early warning of invasion [11,12,13]. The application of eDNA for species detection has become increasingly common; a growing proportion of studies has used this approach, and it has been applied to various invasive taxonomic organisms—for example, amphibians [14,15,16], fishes [17,18], reptiles [19,20,21], arthropods [22], gastropods [23], bivalves [24], bryozoan [25], and hydrozoan [26]

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