Abstract
The freshwater fish Alburnoides bipunctatus is a widespread species that suffered from river straightening and water pollution across Europe. The species is difficult to monitor, which hampers evaluation of current reintroduction action. We thus developed an environmental DNA (eDNA) based assay to allow for monitoring of A. bipunctatus in central Germany. A 63 bp cytochrome b-based mitochondrial marker proved highly sensitive and specific for A. bipunctatus. The assay was tested in the laboratory using different concentrations of reference samples from various local fish species. A real-life test using water samples from three reintroduction sites was used to validate the applicability of the assay.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Bálint M, Nowak C, Márton O et al (2017) Twenty-five species of frogs in a liter of water: eDNA survey for exploring tropical frog diversity. bioRxiv preprint. https://doi.org/10.1101/176065
Berdal KG, Bøydler C, Tengs T, Holst-Jensen A (2008) A statistical approach for evaluation of PCR results to improve the practical limit of quantification (LOQ) of GMO analyses (SIMQUANT). Eur Food Res Technol 227:1149–1157. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-008-0830-1
Biggs J, Ewald N, Valentini A et al (2015) Using eDNA to develop a national citizen science-based monitoring programme for the great crested newt (Triturus cristatus). Biol Conserv 183:19–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.11.029
Bobbe T (2011) Erste Erfahrungen bei der Wiederansiedlung des Schneiders in Südhessen Inhalt.
Bobbe T (2015) Wiederansiedlung des Schneiders Alburnoides bipunctatus (BLOCH 1782) in Südhessen 2009–2015
Bobbe T (2016) Wiederansiedlung des Schneiders Alburnoides bipunctatus (BLOCH 1782) in Südhessen 2009–2015
Carim KJ, Dysthe JCS, Young MK et al (2016) An environmental DNA assay for detecting Arctic grayling in the upper Missouri River basin, North America. Conserv Genet Resour 8:197–199. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-016-0531-1
Ficetola GF, Miaud C, Pompanon F, Taberlet P (2008) Species detection using environmental DNA from water samples. Biol Lett 4:423–425. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0118
Goldberg CS, Pilliod DS, Arkle RS, Waits LP (2011) Molecular detection of vertebrates in stream water: a demonstration using rocky mountain tailed frogs and Idaho giant salamanders. PLoS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0022746
Goldberg CS, Turner CR, Deiner K et al (2016) Critical considerations for the application of environmental DNA methods to detect aquatic species. Methods Ecol Evol 7:1299–1307. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12595
Hall TA (1999) BioEdit: a user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for windows 95/98/NT. Nucleic Acids Symp Ser 41:95–98
Harper KJ, Anucha NP, Turnbull JF et al (2018) Searching for a signal: environmental DNA (eDNA) for the detection of invasive signal crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus (Dana, 1852). Manag Biol Invasions 9
Lukas JAY, Jourdan J, Kalinkat G et al (2017) On the occurrence of three non-native cichlid species including the first record of a feral population of Pelmatolapia (Tilapia) mariae (Boulenger, 1899) in Europe. R Soc Open Sci 4:170160. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170160
Rothe U (2002) Kurzmitteilung—short communication. Mit Mus Natkd Berl Zool R 78:183–185
Sigsgaard EE, Carl H, Møller PR, Thomsen PF (2015) Monitoring the near-extinct European weather loach in Denmark based on environmental DNA from water samples. Biol Conserv 183:46–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.11.023
Thomsen PF, Kielgast J, Iversen LL et al (2012) Monitoring endangered freshwater biodiversity using environmental DNA. Mol Ecol 21:2565–2573. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2011.05418.x
Wilcox TM, McKelvey KS, Young MK et al (2013) Robust detection of rare species using environmental DNA: the importance of primer specificity. PLoS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0059520
Wittwer C, Stoll S, Strand D et al (2018) eDNA-based crayfish plague monitoring is superior to conventional trap-based assessments in year-round detection probability. Hydrobiologia 807:87–97. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-017-3408-8
Yamamoto S, Minami K, Fukaya K et al (2016) Environmental DNA as a “snapshot” of fish distribution: a case study of Japanese jack mackerel in Maizuru Bay, Sea of Japan. PLoS ONE 11:1–18. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149786
Ye J, Coulouris G, Zaretskaya I et al (2012) Primer-BLAST: a tool to design target-specific primers for polymerase chain reaction. BMC Bioinformatics 13:134. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2105-13-134
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the upper fisheries administration of the State of Hessen, namely the Regierungspräsidium Kassel (Christoph Laczny), for financial and logistical support. We would like to thank the Rhön Biosphere Reserve team in Hessen for initiating this project and in particular Joachim Walter for the helpful guidance to the sampling sites and assistance in eDNA sampling. We are thankful to Wolfgang Silkenat and Matthias Schäffner (Fischereifachberatung Bezirk Unterfranken), who provided diverse fish tissues for the development of the eDNA assay. We kindly acknowledge Dr. Harald Groß for the provision of A. bipunctatus individuals for initial eDNA tests. We are thankful to Fiona Paul and Lina Wolf for their field and laboratory assistance during the project.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Riaz, M., Wittwer, C., Nowak, C. et al. An environmental DNA assay for the detection of the regionally endangered freshwater fish Alburnoides bipunctatus in Germany. Conservation Genet Resour 12, 41–43 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-018-1063-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-018-1063-7