By analysing faeces of Royle’s pika – a small rabbit-like mammal found in India's Himalaya – using DNA ‘metabarcoding’, researchers at IISc Bengaluru have found that these animals survive almost entirely on specific plants that grow only in cold, wet conditions.
About:
DNA metabarcoding infers the species composition of an environmental sample by amplifying, sequencing, and analysing target genomic regions.
It differs from DNA barcoding in the use of high-throughput sequencing.
This technique allows for DNA sequencing of bulk samples without a prior step of specimen sorting.
With DNA metabarcoding one can identify organisms down to various taxonomic levels and compare the taxa composition among samples.
DNA metabarcoding can be used even when DNA is degraded. Therefore, it is possible to analyse taxa diversity in samples such as soil, faeces, or sediments.
There is an increasing demand for this technology in a variety of fields, such as: Microbial ecology, Aerobiology, Soil biology, Marine and freshwater biology etc.
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