Abstract
IntroductionSpiders are important arthropod predators in many terrestrial ecosystems, and molecular tools have boosted our ability to investigate this taxon, which can be difficult to study with conventional methods. Nonetheless, it has typically been necessary to kill spiders to obtain their DNA for molecular applications, especially when studying their diet.ResultsWe successfully tested the novel approach of employing spider faeces as a non-invasive source of DNA for species identification and diet analysis. Although the overall concentration of DNA in the samples was very low, consumer DNA, suitable for species identification, was amplified from 84% of the faecal pellets collected from lycosid spiders. Moreover, the most important prey types detected in the gut content of the lycosids were also amplified from the faecal samples.ConclusionThe ability to amplify DNA from spider faeces with specific and general primers suggests that this sample type can be used for diagnostic PCR and sequence-based species and prey identification such as DNA barcoding and next generation sequencing, respectively. These findings demonstrate that faeces provide a non-invasive alternative to full-body DNA extracts for molecular studies on spiders when killing or injuring the animal is not an option.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12983-015-0096-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Spiders are important arthropod predators in many terrestrial ecosystems, and molecular tools have boosted our ability to investigate this taxon, which can be difficult to study with conventional methods
A total of 185 faecal samples (98%) contained amplifiable DNA: these were compared to the respective full-body DNA extracts regarding their suitability for molecular analysis
Overall the detection of lycosid DNA was possible in 84% of the 185 faecal samples: 73% of the faecal samples tested positive at genus level (IPC assay) and 72% scored positive at species level for DNA of P. saturatior or P. nigra (DUP assay)
Summary
Spiders are important arthropod predators in many terrestrial ecosystems, and molecular tools have boosted our ability to investigate this taxon, which can be difficult to study with conventional methods. It has typically been necessary to kill spiders to obtain their DNA for molecular applications, especially when studying their diet. Spiders are a diverse invertebrate group with more than 37,000 described species [1]; they inhabit almost all terrestrial ecosystems, where they are important arthropod predators [2,3,4]. As spiders are liquid feeders, morphological identification of prey remains is of limited use in studying their feeding ecology. Molecular tools significantly improved the diet analysis of spiders: solid prey remains (e.g. from webs) are no longer needed to analyse what has been consumed [7,8,9]. It is at minimum necessary to injure the spider
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