DNA barcoding in diet assessment

[9] A major benefit of using DNA barcoding in diet assessment is the ability to provide high taxonomic resolution of consumed species.

[10] Indeed, when compared to traditional morphological analysis, DNA barcoding enables a more reliable separation of closely related taxa reducing the observed bias.

[13] For example, Arachnids feed on pre-digested bodies of insects or other small animals and their stomach content is too decomposed and morphologically unrecognizable using traditional methods such as microscopy.

[14] When investigating herbivores diet, DNA metabarcoding enables detection of highly digested plant items with a higher number of taxa identified compared to microhistology and macroscopic analysis.

[15][16] For instance, Nichols et al. (2016) highlighted the taxonomic precision of metabarcoding on rumen contents, with on average 90% of DNA-sequences being identified to genus or species level in comparison to 75% of plant fragments recognised with macroscopy.

When studying small herbivores with a cryptic life style, such as voles and lemmings, DNA barcoding of ingested plants can be a crucial tool giving an accurate picture of food utilization.

[33] Between October and November, by analyzing the faeces composition via DNA barcoding, the alpine chamois showed a shift in diet preferences.

[23] Estimating the vertebrate diet diversity of the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) in Pakistan, Shehzad et al. (2012) identified a total of 18 prey taxa using DNA barcoding on faeces.

[34] DNA metabarcoding is a game changer for the study of complex diets, such as for omnivores predators, feeding on many different species with both plants and animal origin.

[35] In a study on brown bear (Ursus arctos) diet, DNA metabarcoding allowed accurate reconstruction of a wide range of taxonomically different items present in faecal samples collected in the field.