Case Study
Submitted By
| Name: | Virginia León-Régagnon |
| Institution: | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) |
| Country: | Mexico |
| Email: | vleon@ibiologia.unam.mx |
Title & Categories
| Case Study Title: | DNA barcodes of the species in Chamela-Cuixmala Reserve, Mexico. |
| Focus Theme: | Biotic inventory of multiple taxa in a region or habitat |
| Geographic Region: | Central America |
| Habitat Type: | Terrestrial tropical forest |
| Taxonomic Group: | c: PLANTS, d: Arthropoda - Crustacea, d: Arthropoda - Hexapoda - Hymenoptera, d: Arthropoda - Hexapoda - Other Insecta, d: Nemata, d: Platyhelminthes, f: VERTEBRATES |
Scope
The study will be conducted in the Biosphere Reserve Chamela-Cuixmala, in Jalisco State, North West Mexico. Selected groups of organisms will be collected in the field or gathered from museum collections namely: Angiosperms, Vertebrates (fish, amphibia, reptilia, birds, mammals), Insecta (Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Odonata), Crustacea, Nematoda, Platyhelminthes. COI sequences will be obtained and associated with taxonomic information of specimens into web pages. Information will be incorporated into a database following the format of BOLD. The project is planned to be conducted in 5 years, with an approximate total cost of $600,000.00 USD
Purpose
Mexico is considered to be a mega diverse country. The seasonally dry tropical forests are of particular importance in terms of species richness and endemism. These ecosystems constitute 60% of the total area occupied by forests in Mexico; nevertheless, their biodiversity inventory is far from complete. It is necessary to undertake actions that facilitate and speed the knowledge of our biota to be able to plan its management and conservation. Particularly, Chamela-Cuixmala reserve is one of the most extensively studied tropical areas in our country and offers an ideal model to barcode the biota of the seasonally dry forest in Mexico. This will allow completing the species inventory of the region and getting closer estimates of species richness, detecting cryptic species using DNA data.
Background
This is the first attempt to develop a barcoding project in the seasonally dry forest in Mexico, although COI sequences have been used to differentiate Mexican species of digeneans and leeches. In the first, an invasive species of frog’s lung fluke was identified and in the second, several species of Mexican leeches were validated using COI sequences. On the other hand, some of the species of birds present in Chamela–Cuixmala might be included in the All Birds Barcoding Initiative. The Instituto de Biología is involved in the project “Establishing a standard DNA barcode for plants” exploring the genus Agave.
Logistics
DNA sequencing will be performed in the Molecular Laboratories, at the Instituto de Biología, UNAM. We already do DNA sequencing, but no large-scale barcoding, so we will need to expand our facilities with an additional PCR machine, centrifuge, pipettors, etc. We will also need cryogenic freezers to keep the tissues collected in this project, and build a cryogenic collection where the safety and accessibility of tissues is warranted (there is someone in charge of building this Collection in our institution). We will need a lab technician to do the sequencing and a second technician who will be in charge of building the web pages and the database. Dr. Virginia León-Règagnon, Dr. Alejandro Zaldívar-Riverón, Dr. Susana Magallón-Puebla, Dr. Gerardo Salazar-Chávez, all of them researchers in the Instituto de Biología, will supervise data management and analysis. Collaboration with numerous systematists in the UNAM will allow the collection and identification of organisms.