Dr Joel Huey1,2, Dr Josephine Hyde1, Dr Leanne Van der Weyde3, Mr Brad Durrant1, Dr Mark Harvey4, Dr Jeremy Wilson4, Dr Nihara Gunawardene1
1Biologic Environmental, Osborne Park, Australia, 2University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia, 3Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Walpole, Australia, 4Western Australian Museum, Welshpool, Australia
Biography:
Joel is a Principal Geneticist, and manager of Biologic's Molecular Systematics group. In this role he develops and implements molecular methods to support biodiversity surveys and monitoring in the environmental consulting sector. He has over 20 years experience studying diverse flora and fauna, using population genetics, phylogenetics, and more recently, Environmental DNA.
Abstract:
Many mygalomorph spider species are threatened and require monitoring for environmental assessment purposes. eDNA methods lend themselves well to detecting cryptic animals without removing them from the environment. However, qPCR and DNA metabarcoding approaches require the amplification of known regions of DNA using primers, which is challenging for highly diverse, poorly sequenced groups. Mygalomorph spiders are cryptic, speciose, and typically exhibit high phylogenetic diversity within nominal species. This impedes the application of standard qPCR or metabarcoding approaches for this group. To address this challenge, we trialled a metagenomic approach to identify mygalomorph spider species by sampling the silk lining of their burrows. We undertook low coverage whole genome sequencing (lcWGS) of silk and swab samples to recover fragments of DNA adequate for species identification. This was undertaken on burrows of three families: Migidae (Bertmainius), Idiopidae (Euoplos) and Anamidae (Aname). We sampled the silk from active and defunct burrows using different approaches. In most cases we were able to recover on-target DNA from active burrows, which allowed us to assign species level identifications to burrows, without disturbing individuals. We discuss the applications of this approach to mygalomorph research and conservation, and the next steps of this project.