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Diet Analysis of the Texas Horned Lizard
Upton, Kaitlyn
Upton, Kaitlyn
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Date
2017
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2017-05-19
Abstract
The Texas horned lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum) is a vulnerable species that is thought to eat almost exclusively harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex spp.). Previous research in our lab has indicated that there is an abundance of nonharvester ant prey in horned lizard scat samples collected in Karnes County, Texas including termites, other ant species, and beetles. This study aimed to create a primer pair for species level identification of prey, specifically focused on ant species, from horned lizard scat. Thus enabling the identification of the Texas horned lizard diet using molecular techniques. We collected insect samples from Karnes County and successfully sequenced 44 ant individuals as well as other insects from different orders. We built an alignment of ant sequences, both our own and some from the online database Genbank, and created neighbor-joining trees for a 560 base pair region of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene as well as a 146 base pair region within the larger part. Both trees showed similar genetic relationships among samples and supported the claim that primers for the shorter region would be conserved enough to amplify a wide variety of ant species but also specific enough to still yield a species level identification.
Contents
Subject
Texas Horned Lizard
ant genetics
ant genetics
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Department
Biology