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Description
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The project wi use modern molecular techniques to amplify trace DNA remains in the guts of small invertebrate, in order to identify potential micropredators of sea urchins. DNA analysis is a recent advancement in the study of predator-prey interaction and, to date, has never been used for sea urchins. Objectives of the present project are: 1) Design of specific and group primers for DNA from the two most common Mediterranean se urchin species from rocky reefs, Paracentrotus lividus and Arbacia lixula. This task will be facilitated by the presence of a wide collection of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) in public databases, eg. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. For P. lividus, the complete genome sequence is already known and available. We will design primers based on both mitochondrial (cycloygenase I, ITS) and nuclear (bindin, P16, P19) DNA, known to be highly polymorphic among species 2) Identification of potential micropredators of sea urchin by amplification of total DNA with the specific primers designed in objective 1. PCR techniques will overcome the challenges of handling small invertebrates, stored in ethanol for weeks or months |
