Metabarcoding and applied ecology with hyperdiverse organisms: Recommendations for biological control research

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Applied Ecology
• Conservation Biology

Background:

• Metabarcoding advances ecological research by enabling large-scale species detection and community analysis.
• Its application in applied ecology, particularly classical biological control (CBC) with hyperdiverse taxa, remains limited.
• Accurate identification of native, invasive, and biological control agent (BCA) species is critical for effective CBC and preventing negative socio-economic impacts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the opportunities metabarcoding presents for CBC research.
• To address methodological challenges hindering metabarcoding integration into existing CBC workflows.
• To propose solutions for enhancing the accuracy and utility of metabarcoding in CBC.

Main Methods:

• Focus on insect parasitoids as key BCAs for invasive species and agricultural pests.
• Discuss limitations of current genetic databases for reliable parasitoid identification.
• Propose the establishment of authoritative genetic databases linking metabarcoding data to identified specimens.

Main Results:

• Current genetic databases are insufficient for accurate parasitoid identification via metabarcoding.
• Utilizing multiple genetic markers can mitigate primer bias and improve taxonomic resolution.
• Development of CBC-specific metabarcoding workflows is suggested for tracking BCA effectiveness.

Conclusions:

• Metabarcoding holds significant potential for CBC, but requires improved genetic resources and tailored methodologies.
• Establishing linked genetic databases and employing multi-marker approaches are key recommendations.
• Community metabarcoding offers a powerful future tool for CBC, as illustrated by a case study on Drosophila suzukii.