Molecular biosurveillance of wood-boring cerambycid beetles using DNA metabarcoding

Individual sorting and identification of thousands of insects collected in mass trapping biosurveillance programs is a labor intensive and time-consuming process. Metabarcoding, which allows for the simultaneous identification of multiple individuals in a single mixed sample, has the potential to expedite this process. However, detecting all the species present in a bulk sample can be challenging. In this study, we quantified the effectiveness of metabarcoding at detecting all species in six different mock communities of xylophagous cerambycid beetles. No significant differences in the number of species detected were observed between MinION, Illumina, and IonTorrent sequencing technologies. However, a greater number of individuals was detected and identified to species using MinION. In addition, the proportion of reads assigned to the species level was higher with Illumina technology. The three sequencing technologies also showed similar results in detecting and identifying closely related species and species at low abundance. The capture method greatly influences sample preservation and detection. Indeed, individuals captured using monopropylene and water had both lower DNA concentration and species detection rates compared to individuals killed using just an insecticide without any collection medium