A tale of two fluids: does storing specimens together in liquid preservative cause DNA cross‐contamination in molecular gut‐content studies?. Issue 3 (12th April 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Athey, Kacie J.; Chapman, Eric G.; Harwood, James D.
• Is Part Of: Entomologia experimentalis et applicata. Volume 163:Issue 3(2017:Jun.)
• Page Start: 338
• Page End: 343
• Publication Date: 2017-04-12
• Subjects: ethanol -- ethylene glycol -- generalist predators -- food‐web connections -- Drosophila melanogaster -- Campoletis spec. -- parasitoid wasps -- slugs -- Philomycidae -- Carabidae -- pitfall trap -- Malaise trap; Entomology -- Periodicals; 595.7
• DOI: 10.1111/eea.12567
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-8703

Abstract

Abstract: The study of food webs and trophic interactions increasingly relies on PCR‐based molecular gut‐content analysis. However, this technique may be prone to error from contamination of minute quantities of DNA; i.e., simply storing specimens together in a liquid medium may lead to cross‐contamination. In this study, we used PCR to determine the contamination rate when (1) specimens were stored together in 95% ethanol for various time periods, and (2) predators fall into ethylene glycol‐filled pitfall traps where the dying predator may inadvertently consume prey DNA‐contaminated liquid. We designed experiments and PCR primers to quantify the risk of contamination for both situations and found no contamination by storing specimens together in 95% ethanol. Furthermore, zero predators contained prey DNA in their gut contents from imbibing prey DNA‐contaminated ethylene glycol. These results support the use of mass sampling techniques, like wet pitfall traps, for molecular gut‐content analysis.