DNA barcoding for identification of anuran species in the central region of South America

Ricardo Koroiva; Luís Reginaldo Ribeiro Rodrigues; Diego José Santana

doi:10.7717/peerj.10189

DNA barcoding for identification of anuran species in the central region of South America

PeerJ. 2020 Oct 21:8:e10189. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10189. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Ricardo Koroiva¹, Luís Reginaldo Ribeiro Rodrigues², Diego José Santana³

Affiliations

¹ Departamento de Sistemática e Ecologia, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil.
² Instituto de Ciências da Educação, Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará, Santarém, Pará, Brazil.
³ Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.

Abstract

The use of COI barcodes for specimen identification and species discovery has been a useful molecular approach for the study of Anura. Here, we establish a comprehensive amphibian barcode reference database in a central area of South America, in particular for specimens collected in Mato Grosso do Sul state (Brazil), and to evaluate the applicability of the COI gene for species-level identification. Both distance- and tree-based methods were applied for assessing species boundaries and the accuracy of specimen identification was evaluated. A total of 204 mitochondrial COI barcode sequences were evaluated from 22 genera and 59 species (19 newly barcoded species). Our results indicate that morphological and molecular identifications converge for most species, however, some species may present cryptic species due to high intraspecific variation, and there is a high efficiency of specimen identification. Thus, we show that COI sequencing can be used to identify anuran species present in this region.

Keywords: Anura; Brazil; COI; DNA Barcode; Frog; Mato Grosso do Sul.

Grants and funding

Ricardo Koroiva received a Post-doctoral scholarship (PNPD/CAPES) from Coordenação de. Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES). Luís Reginaldo Ribeiro Rodrigues was financed by CAPES –Edital ProAmazônia (AUXPE 3318/2013). Diego José Santana received research fellowship (proc. 311492/2017-7) from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq). This study was financed by the Coordenação de. Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) -. Finance Code 001. Additional support was obtained from the Institutional Program of Internationalization sponsored by Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Finance Code 001; CAPES-PrInt 41/2017 - Process 88881.311897/2018-01). There was no additional external funding received for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.