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DNA-based fecal analyses for trophic relations of Korean birds and Svalbard reindeer
- Alternative Title
- Sungbae Joo
- Author(s)
- Joo, Sungbae
- Alternative Author(s)
- Sungbae Joo
- Advisor
- 박상규
- Department
- 일반대학원 생명과학과
- Publisher
- The Graduate School, Ajou University
- Publication Year
- 2014-02
- Language
- eng
- Alternative Abstract
- The knowledge of transfer of energy to higher trophic level on food webs is essential to understanding ecosystem functioning, health and evolutions. The first step to understanding the energy transfer in ecosystems is the answer of question, “Who eats whom and how much?” Various approaches have been attempt to investigate diets of predators, however, there were many limitations to obtain accurate information related with diet components or feeding preferences. Recently, development of molecular techniques and improvement of DNA barcoding database lead to recover degraded and fragmented DNA from environmental samples and to identify species both predator and prey with higher resolution. The first study supposed that this strategy applying mini-barcode for environmental fecal samples, might be a useful and convenient tool for species identification and dietary analysis for birds. To improve amplification success, a new mini-barcode (K_Bird; 226 bp) was designed to identify bird species and a universal DNA mini-barcode (Uni_Minibar) was applied to dietary analysis. In silico analysis showed that newly designed mini-barcode represent high intraspecific variations of 149 species out of 174 species (86%). Applying this strategy to environmental fecal samples collected in Jinan showed that seven avian species were identified with high similarity (99-100%) and eight kind of prey species, such as moth, spider, fly and dragonfly, were identified as diet. In second study, dietary analysis were conducted on feces of Sturnus cineraceus by non-invasive molecular approaches during breeding season. Dietary analysis for S. cineraceus represented that animal diets contributed more (64.5 %) than vegetable diets (32.7 %) on average. Terrestrial preys, such as insects and spiders, constituted the largest proportion (63.0%) of total animal diet while aquatic organisms did less (26.1%). I hypothesized that agricultural activities by irrigation might affect feeding preferences of S. cineraceus by increase of the water level in paddy fields. In the last study, length-heterogeneity polymerase chain reaction (LH-PCR) were applied to efficiently investigate the forage preference of Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus), First, A length-heterogeneity (LH) database was constructed from potential food sources of Svalbard reindeer, including lichens, mushrooms, mosses, and vascular plants, to interpret LH profiles from the fecal samples collected. The LH-PCR analysis detected abundant peaks (18.6 peaks on an average per sample) and found that lichens (Stereocaulon sp. and Ochrolechia sp.) and plant species (Salix polaris and Saxifraga oppositifolia) were the food sources that contributed most to the Svalbard reindeer diet by principal component analysis. DNA-based approach used in this study could relieve the ethical problems from traditional methods and increase resolutions of species identification. In further study, long-term diet assessment are necessary to understand energy transfer to higher trophic levels and progress of molecular techniques will be helpful to expand application of DNA-based fecal analyses as non-invasive approaches for studying trophic relations to other various ecosystems.
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- Appears in Collections:
- Graduate School of Ajou University > Department of Bioscience > 4. Theses(Ph.D)
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