Can we use beaks for DNA analyses and mercury contamination assessment?
2016
Xavier, José Carlos | Ferreira, Sónia | Tavares, Silvia | Santos, Nuno | Mieiro, Cláudia Leopoldina | Trathan, Philip N. | Lourenço, Sílvia | Martinho, Filipe | Steinke, Dirk | Seco, Jose | Pereira, Eduarda | Pardal, Miguel | Cherel, Yves | British Antarctic Survey (BAS) ; Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) | Biodiversity institute of Ontario ; University of Guelph | Marine and environmental research centre - IMAR-CMA (Coimbra, Portugal) ; Universidade de Coimbra = University of Coimbra [Portugal] (UC) | Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC) ; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
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Show more [+] Less [-]English. Cephalopod beaks found in the diet of predators have been amajor source of scientific information. In this study,we evaluated the usefulness of DNA and contaminants analysis (total mercury — T-Hg) in cephalopod beaks inorder to assess their applicability as tools in marine ecology studies. We concluded that, when applying DNAtechniques to cephalopod beaks from Antarctic squid species, when using flesh attached to those beaks, it waspossible to obtain DNA and to successfully identify cephalopod species; DNA was not found on the beaks themselves.This study also showed that it is possible to obtain information on T-Hg concentrations in beaks: the T-Hgconcentrations found in the beaks were 6 to 46 times lower than in the flesh of the same cephalopod species.More research on the relationships of mercury concentrations in cephalopod beaks (and other tissues), intraandinter-specifically, are needed in the future.
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