Back to Search
Start Over
Molecular diet studies of water mites reveal prey biodiversity
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 7, p e0254598 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Water mites are diverse aquatic invertebrates that provide potentially important ecosystem and economic services as bioindicators and mosquito biocontrol; however, little is known about water mite digestive physiology, including their diet in nature. Water mites, much like their spider relatives, liquefy their prey upon consumption. This results in the absence of morphologically identifiable prey in water mite mid-gut. Previous studies have reported associations in the field of water mites with presumed prey and laboratory observations of water mites feeding on specific organisms offered for ingestion; however, the present work aims to determine what water mites have ingested in nature based on molecular studies of gut contents from freshly collected organisms from the field. To elucidate water mite prey, we used next-generation sequencing to detect diverse cytochrome oxidase I DNA barcode sequences of putative prey in the guts of 54 specimens comprising two species ofLebertiaand a few specimens ofArrenurus(2) andLimnesia(1). To our knowledge this is the first molecular study of the diets of water mites as they feed in nature. While the presence of chironomid DNA confirmed previous observations of midge larvae as part of the diets ofLebertia, we also found the DNA of diverse organisms in all four species of water mites, including the DNA of mosquitoes in 6 specimens ofLebertiaand a large number of previously unknown prey, especially from oligochaete worms. These studies thereby reveal a greater diversity of prey and a potentially broader significance than previously appreciated for water mites in aquatic food webs. Molecular studies like this can detect water mite predators of mosquito larvae and add knowledge of water mite predatory contributions to freshwater food webs.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
Life Cycles
Molecular biology
Physiology
Biological pest control
Biodiversity
Predation
Disease Vectors
01 natural sciences
DNA barcoding
Mosquitoes
Medical Conditions
Larvae
Sequencing techniques
Medicine and Health Sciences
DNA sequencing
Mites
Multidisciplinary
integumentary system
Ecology
Ingestion
Eukaryota
Genomics
Trophic Interactions
Insects
Infectious Diseases
Community Ecology
Medicine
Transcriptome Analysis
Research Article
Next-Generation Sequencing
Food Chain
Arthropoda
Science
Zoology
Biology
010603 evolutionary biology
03 medical and health sciences
parasitic diseases
Mite
Genetics
Animals
Invertebrate
Nutrition
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Organisms
Biology and Life Sciences
Computational Biology
biology.organism_classification
Genome Analysis
Invertebrates
respiratory tract diseases
Insect Vectors
Diet
Research and analysis methods
Species Interactions
030104 developmental biology
Molecular biology techniques
Predatory Behavior
Midge
Physiological Processes
Bioindicator
Entomology
Developmental Biology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 16
- Issue :
- 7
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....ba7fe8d34de7f894f3c0caa4fd2d32fe