Environmental DNA and Specific Primers for Detecting the Invasive Species Ectopleura crocea (Hydrozoa: Anthoathecata) in Seawater Samples

Philjae Kim, Tae Joong Yoon and Sook Shin
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Philjae Kim: Research & Development Division, National Science Museum, Daejeon 34143, Korea
Tae Joong Yoon: Institute of Marine Life Resources, Sahmyook University, Seoul 01795, Korea
Sook Shin: Institute of Marine Life Resources, Sahmyook University, Seoul 01795, Korea

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: In marine environments, environmental DNA (eDNA) can be effectively detected and possibly quantified when combined with molecular techniques, as demonstrated by several recent studies. In this study, we developed a species-specific primer set and a probe to detect the distribution and biomass of an invasive hydrozoan in South Korea, Ectopleura crocea . These molecular markers were designed to amplify a 187 bp region based on mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) of E. crocea and were tested on seawater samples from 35 Korean harbors in 2017. Of the 35 sites we investigated, only nine harbors returned positive detections when using traditional survey methods, while surveys based on the use of eDNA techniques detected E. crocea DNA in all seawater samples. These results suggest that eDNA surveys based on molecular techniques are more effective at identifying species distribution and estimating biomass than traditional surveys based on visual assessment of morphology.

Keywords: Ectopleura crocea; environmental DNA; invasive species; monitoring; species-specific markers; quantitative PCR (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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