Data for Manuscript: Molecular gut content analysis reveals predator feeding preferences and potential for biological control of aphids in sugar beet fields
Description
The present dataset contains the results (positive/negative detections for Aphis fabae or Myzus persicae) of gut content PCR conducted on predatory arthropods collected in Danish sugar beet fields in 2022 and 2023. Additionally, the dataset contains results of digestion trials for Coccinella septempunctata, Cantharis lateralis and Chrysoperla carnea fed with Aphis fabae and Myzus persicae
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Steps to reproduce
The full methodology is described in Jachowicz, N., Jacobsen, S.K., Sigsgaard, L.: Molecular gut content analysis reveals predator feeding preferences and potential for biological control of aphids in sugar beet fields. Simplified methodology: 1. Aphid predators were collected in sugar beet fields between May and July of 2022 and 2023, and stored in individual eppendorph tubes with 70% ethanol at -20C. 2. The predators were individually crushed and extracted for DNA using the the Quiagen DNeasy blood and tissue extraction kit. 3. The DNA extraction was followed by by qPCR amplification with two different aphid specific DNA primers (Harper et al., 2005). The qPCR reactions were carried out in 25µl reaction volumes containing 1µl of DNA template, 125l of RealQ Plus 2x Master Mix Green, 0.5µl of each primer and 10.5µl of MilliQ water. Separate plates were used to analyze each of the aphid species. Each 96 well plate had one positive control with the target aphid DNA and a negative control with MilliQ water in place of DNA template. The qPCR reaction was performed using Applied Biosystems 7500 Real-Time PCR using the following PCR conditions: 15min at 95°C, then 40 cycles of the following: 30s at 95°C, 1min at 57°C and 1min at 72°C.