D3108: Improving the specificity of pollinator eDNA methods through primer design

For threatened or endangered pollinator species (TEPs), the development of sensitive population monitoring methods is increasingly important for detecting shifts in abundance and range. Though environmental DNA (eDNA) provides a new tool in pollinator monitoring research, the method has been hindered by low sensitivity as a result of amplification of non-target species. Nonetheless, the use of eDNA metabarcoding could be an important tool to monitor TEPs since traditional netting surveys are lethal, time consuming, or require considerable in-field taxonomic expertise. Thus, it is necessary to develop barcoding primer pairs designed for specific target taxa (e.g. Anthophila; Bombus). In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of newly developed primers optimized to amplify eDNA from several pollinator groups. Understanding which primer combinations result in confident, species-level identifications will be critical for future field-ready eDNA monitoring methods.