Dataset Information

Examining the utility of DNA barcodes for the identification of tallgrass prairie flora.

ABSTRACT:

Premise

The tallgrass prairies of North America are one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world, making efficient species identification essential for understanding and managing diversity. Here, we assess DNA barcoding with high-throughput sequencing as a method for rapid plant species identification.

Methods

Using herbarium collections representing the tallgrass prairie flora of Oak Lake Field Station, South Dakota, USA, we amplified and examined four common nuclear and plastid barcode regions (ITS, matK, psbA-trnH, and rbcL), individually and in combination, to test their success in identifying samples to family, genus, and species levels using BLAST searches of three databases of varying size.

Results

Concatenated barcodes increased performance, although none were significantly different than single-region barcodes. The plastid region psbA-trnH performed significantly more poorly than the others, while barcodes containing ITS performed best. Database size significantly affected identification success at all three taxonomic levels. Confident species-level identification ranged from 8-44% for the global database, 13-56% for the regional database, and 21-80% for the sampled species database, depending on the barcode used.

Discussion

Barcoding was generally successful in identifying tallgrass prairie genera and families, but was of limited use in species-level identifications. Database size was an important factor in successful plant identification. We discuss future directions and considerations for improving the performance of DNA barcoding in tallgrass prairies.

SUBMITTER: Herzog SA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7845766 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Examining the utility of DNA barcodes for the identification of tallgrass prairie flora.

Herzog Sarah A SA Latvis Maribeth M

Applications in plant sciences 20210124 1

<h4>Premise</h4>The tallgrass prairies of North America are one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world, making efficient species identification essential for understanding and managing diversity. Here, we assess DNA barcoding with high-throughput sequencing as a method for rapid plant species identification.<h4>Methods</h4>Using herbarium collections representing the tallgrass prairie flora of Oak Lake Field Station, South Dakota, USA, we amplified and examined four common nuclear and pl ...[more]

PMID: 33552747

Similar Datasets

Project description:Over the past decade, functional traits that influence plant performance and thus, population, community, and ecosystem biology have garnered increasing attention. Generally lacking, however, has been consideration of how ubiquitous arbuscular mycorrhizas influence plant allometric and stoichiometric functional traits. We assessed how plant dependence on and responsiveness to mycorrhizas influence plant functional traits of a warm-season, C4 grass, Andropogon gerardii Vitman, and the contrasting, cool-season, C3 grass, Elymus canadensis L. We grew both host species with and without inoculation with mycorrhizal fungi, across a broad gradient of soil phosphorus availabilities. Both host species were facultatively mycotrophic, able to grow without mycorrhizas at high soil phosphorus availability. A. gerardii was most dependent upon mycorrhizas and E. canadensis was weakly dependent, but highly responsive to mycorrhizas. The high dependence of A. gerardii on mycorrhizas resulted in higher tissue P and N concentrations of inoculated than noninoculated plants. When not inoculated, E. canadensis was able to take up both P and N in similar amounts to inoculated plants because of its weak dependence on mycorrhizas for nutrient uptake and its pronounced ability to change root-to-shoot ratios. Unlike other highly dependent species, A. gerardii had a high root-to-shoot ratio and was able to suppress colonization by mycorrhizal fungi at high soil fertilities. E. canadensis, however, was unable to suppress colonization and had a lower root-to shoot ratio than A. gerardii. The mycorrhiza-related functional traits of both host species likely influence their performance in nature: both species attained the maximum responsiveness from mycorrhizas at soil phosphorus availabilities similar to those of tallgrass prairies. Dependence upon mycorrhizas affects performance in the absence of mycorrhizas. Responsiveness to mycorrhizal fungi is also a function of the environment and can be influenced by both mycorrhizal fungus species and soil fertility.

Dataset Information

Examining the utility of DNA barcodes for the identification of tallgrass prairie flora.

Premise

Methods

Results

Discussion

Publications

Examining the utility of DNA barcodes for the identification of tallgrass prairie flora.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets