TY - JOUR
T1 - Invasive terrestrial invertebrate detection in water and soil using a targeted eDNA approach
AU - Villacorta-Rath, Cecilia
AU - Lach, Lori
AU - Andrade-Rodriguez, Natalia
AU - Burrows, Damien
AU - Gleeson, Dianne
AU - Trujillo-González, Alejandro
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land where the sampling and laboratory analyses were conducted. The contribution of C.V.R. and N.A.R. were supported through funding from the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program—Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub, Project 4.3 (to D.B.) and the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment (to C.V.R. and L.L.). In addition, the contribution of A.T.G. was funded by the Biosecurity Innovation Program, from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (to D.G. and A.T.G.). Thanks to Angela Strain (JCU) and the Wet Tropics Management Authority (WTMA) for providing yellow crazy ant specimens for assay development. We thank Melissa Green (Townsville City Council), as well as Bev Job and Janet Cross (Invasive Species Council) for assistance with sample collection and discussions on locations of yellow crazy ant infestations in Townsville.
Funding Information:
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land where the sampling and laboratory analyses were conducted. The contribution of C.V.R. and N.A.R. were supported through funding from the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program—Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub, Project 4.3 (to D.B.) and the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment (to C.V.R. and L.L.). In addition, the contribution of A.T.G. was funded by the Biosecurity Innovation Program, from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (to D.G. and A.T.G.). Thanks to Angela Strain (JCU) and the Wet Tropics Management Authority (WTMA) for providing yellow crazy ant specimens for assay development. We thank Melissa Green (Townsville City Council), as well as Bev Job and Janet Cross (Invasive Species Council) for assistance with sample collection and discussions on locations of yellow crazy ant infestations in Townsville.
Publisher Copyright:
© (2023), (Pensoft Publishers). All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2023/4
Y1 - 2023/4
N2 - Terrestrial invasive invertebrates can rapidly colonise new areas, causing detrimental effects on biodiversity, economy and lifestyle. Targeted environmental DNA (eDNA) methods could constitute an early detection tool given their sensitivity to small numbers of individuals. We hypothesised that terrestrial runoff would transport eDNA from the land into adjacent waterbodies and used the invasive yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) as a model species to test this hypothesis. We collected water samples from four waterbodies adjacent (< 10 m from the creek edge) to infestations following rainfall events for eDNA analysis. We also collected soil samples from areas of known infestations and tested five eDNA extraction methods to determine their efficiency to extract eDNA from soil. Water samples resulted in positive yellow crazy ant eDNA amplification (20–100% field replicates across all sites), even at one site located 300 m away from where ants had been detected visually. Soil samples resulted in a higher percentage of false negatives when sampled from ant transit areas than from nest entrances. Unpurified DNA extracts from soil also resulted in false negative detections and only after applying a purification step of DNA extracts, did we detect yellow crazy ant eDNA in 40–100% of field replicates across all methods and sites. This is the first study to empirically show that eDNA from a terrestrial invertebrate can be successfully isolated and amplified from adjacent or downstream waterbodies. Our results indicate that eDNA has the potential to be a useful method for detecting terrestrial invertebrates from soil and water.
AB - Terrestrial invasive invertebrates can rapidly colonise new areas, causing detrimental effects on biodiversity, economy and lifestyle. Targeted environmental DNA (eDNA) methods could constitute an early detection tool given their sensitivity to small numbers of individuals. We hypothesised that terrestrial runoff would transport eDNA from the land into adjacent waterbodies and used the invasive yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) as a model species to test this hypothesis. We collected water samples from four waterbodies adjacent (< 10 m from the creek edge) to infestations following rainfall events for eDNA analysis. We also collected soil samples from areas of known infestations and tested five eDNA extraction methods to determine their efficiency to extract eDNA from soil. Water samples resulted in positive yellow crazy ant eDNA amplification (20–100% field replicates across all sites), even at one site located 300 m away from where ants had been detected visually. Soil samples resulted in a higher percentage of false negatives when sampled from ant transit areas than from nest entrances. Unpurified DNA extracts from soil also resulted in false negative detections and only after applying a purification step of DNA extracts, did we detect yellow crazy ant eDNA in 40–100% of field replicates across all methods and sites. This is the first study to empirically show that eDNA from a terrestrial invertebrate can be successfully isolated and amplified from adjacent or downstream waterbodies. Our results indicate that eDNA has the potential to be a useful method for detecting terrestrial invertebrates from soil and water.
KW - Biosecurity
KW - eDNA runoff
KW - false negative
KW - invasive species detection
KW - qPCR inhibition
KW - terrestrial eDNA
KW - yellow crazy ant
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85184482834&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3897/neobiota.83.98898
DO - 10.3897/neobiota.83.98898
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85184482834
SN - 1619-0033
VL - 89
SP - 71
EP - 89
JO - NeoBiota
JF - NeoBiota
ER -
