Toju Hirokazu, Baba Yuki G
1Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Hirano 2-509-3, Otsu, Shiga 520-2113 Japan.
2Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (PRESTO), Japan Science and Technology Agency, Honcho 4-1-8, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012 Japan.
Zoological Lett. 2018 Feb 15;4:4. doi: 10.1186/s40851-018-0088-9. eCollection 2018.
Understanding feedback between above- and below-ground processes of biological communities is a key to the effective management of natural and agricultural ecosystems. However, as above- and below-ground food webs are often studied separately, our knowledge of material flow and community dynamics in terrestrial ecosystems remains limited.
We developed a high-throughput sequencing method for examining how spiders link above- and below-ground food webs as generalist predators. To overcome problems related to DNA-barcoding-based analyses of arthropod-arthropod interactions, we designed spider-specific blocking primers and Hexapoda-specific primers for the selective PCR amplification of Hexapoda prey sequences from spider samples. By applying the new DNA metabarcoding framework to spider samples collected in a temperate secondary forest in Japan, we explored the structure of a food web involving 15 spider species and various taxonomic groups of Hexapoda prey. These results support the hypothesis that multiple spider species in a community can prey on both above- and below-ground prey species, potentially coupling above- and below-ground food-web dynamics.
The PCR primers and metabarcoding pipeline described in this study are expected to accelerate nuclear marker-based analyses of food webs, illuminating poorly understood trophic interactions in ecosystems.
了解生物群落地上与地下过程之间的反馈是有效管理自然和农业生态系统的关键。然而，由于地上和地下食物网通常是分开研究的，我们对陆地生态系统中物质流动和群落动态的了解仍然有限。
我们开发了一种高通量测序方法，用于研究蜘蛛作为广食性捕食者如何连接地上和地下食物网。为了克服基于DNA条形码分析节肢动物与节肢动物相互作用相关的问题，我们设计了蜘蛛特异性阻断引物和六足动物特异性引物，用于从蜘蛛样本中选择性PCR扩增六足动物猎物序列。通过将新的DNA元条形码框架应用于在日本温带次生林中采集的蜘蛛样本，我们探索了一个涉及15种蜘蛛物种和各种分类群六足动物猎物的食物网结构。这些结果支持了这样一种假设，即群落中的多种蜘蛛物种可以捕食地上和地下的猎物物种，这可能会耦合地上和地下食物网的动态。
本研究中描述的PCR引物和元条形码分析流程有望加速基于核标记的食物网分析，阐明生态系统中鲜为人知的营养相互作用。
