Data from: Carrion fly-derived DNA metabarcoding is an effective tool for mammal surveys: evidence from a known tropical mammal community

Metabarcoding of vertebrate DNA derived from carrion flies has been proposed as a promising tool for biodiversity monitoring. To evaluate its efficacy, we conducted metabarcoding surveys of carrion flies on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama, which has a well-known mammal community, and compared our results against diurnal transect counts and camera-trapping. We collected 1084 flies in 29 sampling days, conducted metabarcoding with mammal-specific (16S) and vertebrate-specific (12S) primers, and sequenced amplicons on Illumina MiSeq. For taxonomic assignment, we compared BLAST with the new program PROTAX, and we found that PROTAX improved species identifications. We detected 20 mammal, four bird, and one lizard species from carrion fly metabarcoding, all but one of which are known from BCI. Fly metabarcoding detected more mammal species than concurrent transect counts (29 sampling days, 13 species) and concurrent camera-trapping (84 sampling days, 17 species), and detected 67% of the number of mammal species documented by eight years of transect counts and camera-trapping combined, although fly metabarcoding missed several abundant species. This study demonstrates that carrion fly metabarcoding is a powerful tool for mammal biodiversity surveys, and has the potential to detect a broader range of species than more commonly used methods.

基于食尸蝇（carrion flies）衍生脊椎动物DNA的宏条形码（metabarcoding）技术，已被提议作为一种颇具应用前景的生物多样性监测工具。为评估其应用效能，我们在拥有已知哺乳动物群落的巴拿马巴罗科罗拉多岛（Barro Colorado Island, BCI）开展食尸蝇宏条形码调查，并将调查结果与日间样带计数法及相机陷阱法的结果进行对比。我们在29个采样日内共采集到1084只食尸蝇，使用哺乳动物特异性（16S）与脊椎动物特异性（12S）引物完成宏条形码扩增，并在Illumina MiSeq平台上对扩增子进行测序。在物种分类赋值环节，我们对比了BLAST算法与新型PROTAX软件的分析效果，结果显示PROTAX可显著提升物种鉴定准确性。通过食尸蝇宏条形码技术，我们共检测到20种哺乳动物、4种鸟类及1种蜥蜴物种，其中仅有一种未在BCI有正式记录。食尸蝇宏条形码技术检测到的哺乳动物物种数量，多于同期29个采样日的日间样带计数结果（共检出13种），以及同期84个采样日的相机陷阱法调查结果（共检出17种）；该技术检测到的哺乳动物物种数占八年累计样带计数与相机陷阱法联合调查总物种数的67%，不过其也遗漏了部分优势物种。本研究证实，食尸蝇宏条形码技术是开展哺乳动物生物多样性调查的有力工具，其具备比常规常用方法检测到更广范围物种的潜力。