{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,12]],"date-time":"2026-07-12T18:42:21Z","timestamp":1783881741612,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"PeerJ","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,21]],"date-time":"2023-11-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1700524800000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001659","name":"German Research Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["1374 SCHE 376\/38-1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["1374 SCHE 376\/38-1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001659","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:p>Molecular gut content analysis <jats:italic>via<\/jats:italic> diagnostic PCR or high-throughput sequencing (metabarcoding) of consumers allows unravelling of feeding interactions in a wide range of animals. This is of particular advantage for analyzing the diet of small invertebrates living in opaque habitats such as the soil. Due to their small body size, which complicates dissection, microarthropods are subjected to whole-body DNA extraction-step before their gut content is screened for DNA of their food. This poses the problem that body surface contaminants, such as fungal spores may be incorrectly identified as ingested food particles for fungivorous species. We investigated the effectiveness of ten methods for body surface decontamination in litter-dwelling oribatid mites using <jats:italic>Steganacarus magnus<\/jats:italic> as model species. Furthermore, we tested for potential adverse effects of the decontamination techniques on the molecular detection of ingested prey organisms. Prior to decontamination, oribatid mites were fed with an oversupply of nematodes (<jats:italic>Plectus<\/jats:italic> sp.) and postmortem contaminated with fungal spores (<jats:italic>Chaetomium globosum<\/jats:italic>). We used diagnostic PCR with primers specific for <jats:italic>C. globosum<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Plectus<\/jats:italic> sp. to detect contaminants and prey, respectively. The results suggest that chlorine bleach (sodium hypochloride, NaClO, 5%) is most efficient in removing fungal surface contamination without significantly affecting the detection of prey DNA in the gut. Based on these results, we provide a standard protocol for efficient body surface decontamination allowing to trace the prey spectrum of microarthropods using molecular gut content analysis.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.7717\/peerj.16018","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,21]],"date-time":"2023-11-21T09:14:05Z","timestamp":1700558045000},"page":"e16018","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Testing the effectiveness of different wash protocols to remove body surface contaminants in invertebrate food web studies"],"prefix":"10.7717","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Melissa","family":"J\u00fcds","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"J. F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, Georg-August Universit\u00e4t G\u00f6ttingen, G\u00f6ttingen, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kerstin","family":"Heidemann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"J. F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, Georg-August Universit\u00e4t G\u00f6ttingen, G\u00f6ttingen, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5903-4887","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Bernhard","family":"Eitzinger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"J. F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, Georg-August Universit\u00e4t G\u00f6ttingen, G\u00f6ttingen, Germany"},{"name":"iES Landau, Institute for Environmental Sciences, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Landau in der Pfalz, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4350-9520","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Stefan","family":"Scheu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"J. F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, Georg-August Universit\u00e4t G\u00f6ttingen, G\u00f6ttingen, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"4443","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,21]]},"reference":[{"issue":"12","key":"10.7717\/peerj.16018\/ref-1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3467","DOI":"10.1046\/j.1365-294X.2003.02014.x","article-title":"Collembola as alternative prey sustaining spiders in arable ecosystems: prey detection within predators using molecular markers","volume":"12","author":"Agust\u00ed","year":"2003","journal-title":"Molecular Ecology"},{"issue":"2","key":"10.7717\/peerj.16018\/ref-2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"327","DOI":"10.1111\/1755-0998.12960","article-title":"Promises and pitfalls of using high-throughput sequencing for diet analysis","volume":"19","author":"Alberdi","year":"2019","journal-title":"Molecular Ecology Resources"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.16018\/ref-3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"152","DOI":"10.1016\/j.soilbio.2016.02.006","article-title":"Temporal changes in fungal communities associated with guts and appendages of Collembola as based on culturing and high-throughput sequencing","volume":"96","author":"Anslan","year":"2016","journal-title":"Soil Biology and Biochemistry"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.16018\/ref-4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1093\/acprof:oso\/9780198525035.001.0001","volume-title":"The biology of soil: a community and ecosystem approach","author":"Bardgett","year":"2005"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.16018\/ref-5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"977","DOI":"10.1590\/S1517-83822014000300030","article-title":"A procedure to evaluate the efficiency of surface sterilization methods in culture-independent fungal endophyte studies","volume":"45","author":"Burgdorf","year":"2014","journal-title":"Brazilian Journal of Microbiology"},{"issue":"December 2021","key":"10.7717\/peerj.16018\/ref-6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1111\/2041-210x.13796","article-title":"Overcoming the pitfalls of merging dietary metabarcoding into ecological networks","volume":"2022","author":"Cuff","year":"2021","journal-title":"Methods in Ecology and Evolution"},{"issue":"12","key":"10.7717\/peerj.16018\/ref-7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1069","DOI":"10.1016\/0022-1910(94)90060-4","article-title":"Microorganisms influence the composition of honeydew produced by the silverleaf whitefly, Bemisia argentifolii","volume":"40","author":"Davidson","year":"1994","journal-title":"Journal of Insect Physiology"},{"issue":"3","key":"10.7717\/peerj.16018\/ref-8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"238","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jip.2003.11.003","article-title":"A simple and rapid procedure to obtain aseptic larvae of the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, for molecular investigations","volume":"84","author":"Duperchy","year":"2003","journal-title":"Journal of Invertebrate Pathology"},{"issue":"2","key":"10.7717\/peerj.16018\/ref-9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"266","DOI":"10.1111\/mec.14872","article-title":"Assessing changes in arthropod predator-prey interactions through DNA-based gut content analysis\u2014variable environment, stable diet","volume":"28","author":"Eitzinger","year":"2019","journal-title":"Molecular Ecology"},{"issue":"10","key":"10.7717\/peerj.16018\/ref-10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3599","DOI":"10.1128\/AEM.64.10.3599-3606.1998","article-title":"Two intracellular symbiotic bacteria from the mulberry psyllid Anomoneura mori (Insecta, Homoptera)","volume":"64","author":"Fukatsu","year":"1998","journal-title":"Applied and Environmental Microbiology"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.16018\/ref-11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"155","DOI":"10.1016\/j.soilbio.2018.05.011","article-title":"Phylogenetic and trophic determinants of gut microbiota in soil oribatid mites","volume":"123","author":"Gong","year":"2018","journal-title":"Soil Biology and Biochemistry"},{"issue":"2","key":"10.7717\/peerj.16018\/ref-12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"286","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1755-0998.2010.02922.x","article-title":"Unnecessary roughness? 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