Cross-species genetic monitoring of the wild bee genus Andrena

Complete monitoring of biodiversity not only includes recording changes in the abundance of individual species or composition of groups of species, but also recording changes in the status of populations. Land use elements such as islandization and habitat reduction influence genetic characteristics and can increase the trend towards biodiversity loss. This is recognized as a key aspect of the biodiversity crisis, but long-term observations to estimate this effect are rare. The aspect is therefore only occasionally included in problem descriptions and management decisions. Genetic monitoring as the observation of changes in the genetic properties of populations, in contrast to the determination of species compositions using DNA-based methods, is rarely implemented and when it is, then only with individual species, such as. B. in Switzerland as part of general monitoring. With the introduction of second and third generation DNA analysis techniques (NGS), new approaches for routine screening for genotyping are available. Particularly useful is a method that combines traditional and new capabilities with high throughput and statistical power, but is easy to use and implement. A method that can complement existing approaches until genomic approaches are widely adopted. In recent years we have developed such a method (SSR-GBS; SSR-GBAS), which we use in the area of ​​nature conservation and resource management. We propose to introduce it in a relevant model and thus use it for standardized monitoring. The method allows the detection of a large number of markers (routinely around 100) and the cost-effective, parallel measurement of several thousand samples. The main problem when using NGS for genotyping is bioinformatic processing, especially to clearly determine the alleles. The genotyping method by amplicon sequencing (GBAS) maximizes the information content and reproducibility, which allows extensive automation of the evaluation. This is essential for standardized data collection, which is necessary for monitoring.