Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Government of Western Australia, Hillarys, Western Australia, Australia.
Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.
PLoS One. 2019 Jan 11;14(1):e0210500. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210500. eCollection 2019.
Shark depredation is an issue of concern in some Western Australian recreational and commercial fisheries where it can have economic, social and ecological consequences. Knowledge of the shark species involved is fundamental to developing effective management strategies to mitigate the impacts of depredation. Identification of the species responsible is difficult as direct observation of depredation events is uncommon and evaluating bite marks on fish has a high degree of uncertainty. The use of trace DNA techniques has provided an alternative method for species identification. We demonstrate proof of concept for a targeted DNA barcoding approach to identify shark species using trace DNA found at bite marks on recovered remains of hooked fish. Following laboratory validation, forensic analysis of swabs collected from samples of bitten demersal fish, led to the definitive identification of shark species involved in 100% of the incidences of depredation (n = 16).
鲨鱼捕食是西澳大利亚一些娱乐和商业渔业关注的问题，因为它可能带来经济、社会和生态方面的后果。了解相关鲨鱼物种对于制定减轻捕食影响的有效管理策略至关重要。由于直接观察捕食事件并不常见，而且评估鱼类的咬痕具有高度不确定性，因此确定负责的物种具有一定难度。痕量 DNA 技术的应用为物种鉴定提供了一种替代方法。我们展示了一种基于目标 DNA 条形码的方法的概念验证，该方法使用在回收的钩住的鱼的咬痕上发现的痕量 DNA 来识别鲨鱼物种。经过实验室验证后，对从被咬伤的底栖鱼类样本中采集的拭子进行法医分析，确定了 100%（n = 16）捕食事件中涉及的鲨鱼物种。
