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Improving Metabarcoding Taxonomic Assignment: A Case Study of Fishes in a Large Marine Ecosystem
  • +7
  • Zachary Gold,
  • Emily Curd,
  • Kelly Goodwin,
  • Emma Choi,
  • Benjamin Frable,
  • Andrew Thompson,
  • Harold J Walker Jr,
  • Ronald Burton,
  • Dovi Kacev,
  • Paul Barber
Zachary Gold
UCLA

Corresponding Author:zjgold@g.ucla.edu

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Emily Curd
UCLA
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Kelly Goodwin
Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory
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Emma Choi
University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography
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Benjamin Frable
University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography
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Andrew Thompson
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
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Harold J Walker Jr
University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography
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Ronald Burton
University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography
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Dovi Kacev
University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography
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Paul Barber
UCLA
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Abstract

DNA metabarcoding is an important tool for molecular ecology. However, its effectiveness hinges on the quality of reference sequence databases and classification parameters employed. Here we evaluate the performance of MiFish 12S taxonomic assignments using a case study of California Current Large Marine Ecosystem fishes to determine best practices for metabarcoding. Specifically, we use a taxonomy cross-validation by identity framework to compare classification performance between a global database comprised of all available sequences and a curated database that only includes sequences of fishes from the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem. We demonstrate that the curated, regional database provides higher assignment accuracy than the comprehensive global database. We also document a tradeoff between accuracy and misclassification across a range of taxonomic cutoff scores, highlighting the importance of parameter selection for taxonomic classification. Furthermore, we compared assignment accuracy with and without the inclusion of additionally generated reference sequences. To this end, we sequenced tissue from 605 species using the MiFish 12S primers, adding 253 species to GenBank’s existing 550 California Current Large Marine Ecosystem fish sequences. We then compared species and reads identified from seawater environmental DNA samples using global databases with and without our generated references, and the regional database. The addition of new references allowed for the identification of 16 native taxa and 17.0% of total reads from eDNA samples, including species with vast ecological and economic value. Together these results demonstrate the importance of comprehensive and curated reference databases for effective metabarcoding and the need for locus-specific validation efforts.
17 Feb 2021Submitted to Molecular Ecology Resources
23 Feb 2021Reviewer(s) Assigned
23 Mar 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
30 Apr 2021Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
25 May 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
25 May 20211st Revision Received
03 Jun 2021Editorial Decision: Accept
Oct 2021Published in Molecular Ecology Resources volume 21 issue 7 on pages 2546-2564. 10.1111/1755-0998.13450