Utilization of stomach content DNA to determine diet diversity in piscivorous fishes

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2011

Publication Title

Journal of Fish Biology

Volume

78

Issue

4

First Page

1170

Last Page

1182

Abstract

The objective of the study was to validate and apply DNA-based approaches to describe fish diets. Laboratory experiments were performed to determine the number of hours after ingestion that DNA could be reliably isolated from stomach content residues, particularly with small prey fishes (c. 1 cm, < 0 center dot 75 g). Additionally, experiments were conducted at different temperatures to resolve temperature effects on digestion rate and DNA viability. The molecular protocol of cloning and sequencing was then applied to the analysis of stomach contents of wild fishes collected from the western basin of Lake Erie, Canada-U.S.A. The results showed that molecular techniques were more precise than traditional visual inspection and could provide insight into diet preferences for even highly digested prey that have lost all physical characteristics.

DOI

10.1111/j.1095-8649.2011.02925.x

Comments

This is an accepted manuscript version of an aritcle whose version of record was published in:Journal of Fish Biology: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2011.02925.x

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