Development and evaluation of hotshot protocols for cost-and time-effective extraction of PCR-ready DNA from single freshwater mussel larvae (Bivalvia: Unionida)

Freshwater mussels (Unionida) are unique in that their larvae (glochidium, haustorium or lasidium) parasitize vertebrate hosts, with a given mussel species metamorphosing only on a limited array of host species (Wächtler, Mansur & Richter, 2001). Collecting data on host fish identities is important for both conservation and commercial applications, but requires identification of single larvae to species level. This is most efficiently achieved by molecular species identification (White, McPheron & Stauffer, 1996; Kneeland & Rhymer, 2007, 2008; Boyer et al., 2011; Zieritz et al., 2012; Vannarattanarat et al., 2014), because morphological identification of larval mussels is time-consuming and sometimes unreliable (Wiles, 1975; O’brien, Williams & Hoggarth, 2003)