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10-Minute Presentation

Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity

10-min: SysEB, Systematics, Phylogenetics, and Evolution 1

Fast, cheap, and minimally destructive: A validated DNA-barcoding protocol for bees using MinION

Tuesday, November 12, 2024
10:36 AM – 10:48 AM MST
Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 132 A, PCC
Oral Presentation
Bees are diverse and challenging to identify rapidly using morphology alone. DNA barcoding can potentially help in the taxonomic progress and make it easier for non-specialists to identify material; however, barriers exist to generating and analyzing these data limiting their availability. Here we present a validated workflow for generating and analyzing bee barcode data using the Oxford Nanpore MinION sequencer. The approach is based on similar methods developed for flies, but optimized for bees and tested using different tissues and primers. We tested the approach across 190 diverse bee samples and compared full vs. mini-barcode primers and leg vs. antenna tissues. The results are show a high success rate across all treatments, but the success rate was highest using single antennae and the mini-barcode primers. Our protocol opens the door to fast and cheap DNA barcoding of bees and can be used to enhance bee survey and monitoring efforts by specialists and non-specialists alike.