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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Recurso digital |
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Zenodo
2022
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.311 |
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Table of Contents:
- <p>Molecular analysis of gut content is one of the widest used methods to investigate<br>diet in arthropods. Stomach content analysis in some arthropods is particularly difficult,<br>e.g., in arachnids, because they have external digestion and a low foraging<br>frequency. Scorpions have a particularly low feeding frequency, and their diet information<br>is scarce. In this work we explore a DNA metabarcoding approach to detect<br>prey DNA in Vietnamese forest scorpions (Heterometrus laoticus) under a controlled<br>diet regime. A different type of prey (crickets, mealworms, and cockroaches) was offered<br>once every 3 weeks for a total of 9 weeks. To assess the most suitable part of<br>the digestive system and extraction method to use for molecular diet analysis, we<br>separately analyzed three different portions of the digestive tract of scorpions (mid-gut,<br>hepatopancreas, and hindgut) using two different extraction methods (salt-out<br>method and a customized beads-based<br>protocol). We calculated the detectability half-life<br>of the prey DNA for each digestive tract section. We detected all three targeted<br>prey items, showing that in scorpions multiple predation events can be distinguished<br>in the same specimen within its last 9 weeks of foraging activity. The hepatopancreas<br>was the portion of the digestive tract that provided the best prey detection and the<br>longest DNA detectability half-life<br>(51 days), followed by the mid-gut<br>(22 days) and the<br>hindgut (16 days). We found no significant difference between the extraction methods<br>used. However, the salt-out<br>method was less effective in some of the PCRs and is<br>therefore not recommended for molecular diet analysis.</p>