Spineless and overlooked: DNA metabarcoding of Autonomous Reef
Monitoring Structures reveals population genetic structure in
Mediterranean invertebrates
Abstract
The ability to gather genetic information from organisms obtained
directly from environmental samples is crucial to determine biodiversity
baselines and understanding population dynamics in the marine realm.
While DNA metabarcoding is effective in evaluating biodiversity at
community level, genetic patterns within species are often concealed in
metabarcoding studies and overlooked for marine invertebrates. In the
present study, we implement recently developed bioinformatics tools to
investigate intraspecific genetic variability for invertebrate taxa in
the Mediterranean Sea. Using metabarcoding samples from Autonomous Reef
Monitoring Structures (ARMS) deployed in three locations, we present
haplotypes and diversity estimates for 145 unique species. While overall
genetic diversity was low, we identified several species with high
diversity records and potential cryptic lineages. Further, we emphasize
the spatial scale of genetic variability, which was observed from
locations to individual sampling units (ARMS). We carried out a
population genetic analysis of several important yet understudied
species, which highlights the current knowledge gap concerning
intraspecific genetic patterns for the target taxa in the Mediterranean
basin. Our approach considerably enhances biodiversity monitoring of
charismatic and understudied Mediterranean species, which can be
incorporated into ARMS surveys.