engleski

DNA barcoding caddisfly (Trichoptera) fauna in Croatia

DNA barcoding based on the 648-bp long segment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene has proven to be a highly effective method in differentiating between animal species. Although Croatia is regarded as the one of the richest European countries in terms of biodiversity, there is still no official national barcoding initiative. Caddisflies (Trichoptera), together with dragonflies (Odonata), mayflies (Ephemeroptera), stoneflies (Plecoptera) and true flies (Diptera), compose the majority of freshwater benthic macroinvertebrates. Trichoptera are one of the groups of aquatic insects that represent ideal bioindicator models. Since inhabiting freshwater exposed to all types of pollution, there is a fear that some species will become extinct before they have ever been known. Also, Croatia is a place where systematic Trichoptera surveys started just twenty years ago. DNA barcoding provides valuable tool in the laborious process of species identification of caddisflies. It helps for and accelerates delimitation of morphologically similar species and often reveals cryptic diversity. Furthermore, it facilitates associations of larval stage with adults for taxa for which morphologic diagnosis exists for only one life stage as well as species determination and adult female-male association when there is the lack of information on diagnostic characters for one of the sexes. One of the best opportunities to DNA barcode Trichoptera in Croatia appears within EU Natura 2000 Integration Project – NIP. One of the components of the project is a systematic inventory of biological diversity caddisflies. In this context, we started “DNA Barcoding the caddisflies (Trichoptera) of Croatia” as a pilot project of the future initiative “Croatian barcode of life – CROBOL”. The main goal is to DNA barcode all caddisflies species collected in the course of NIP project. So far we DNA barcoded 85 species of Trichoptera recorded for Croatia, six of them being barcoded for the first time. One of the goals is to increase the species coverage and data availability for caddisflies group by submitting data to online databases (GenBank and BOLD).

molecular method; COI

nije evidentirano