Last week Kristian Meissner (PhD) from the Finnish Environment Institute, SYKE,  visited us to discuss ongoing and future projects. Currently, we process finnish macrozoobenthos samples for metabarcoding. Using our state-of-the-art metabarcoding protocols we are working on a developing more reliable and cheaper water quality assessment routines than possible with morphology-based methods. We would like to thank Kristian for his visit and are looking forward to future cooperations.

Picture 1: The samples from Finland contain hundreds of specimens. For DNA extraction we dry them over night to remove the ethanol in wich the samples were stored.

Anna Kästel from the University Koblenz-Landau and Vasco Elbrecht prepared 20 chironomid samples for DNA metabarcoding over the last two weeks. Together with Kathrin Theissinger, Carsten Brühl and Florian Leese we are investigating the effects of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (BTI) on chironomids. BTI is used in the Oberrhein area in Germany to control mosquito populations, but effects on non target species are not well studied. With modern DNA matabarcoding methods we are investigating the response of chironomids to BTI.

Picture: Vasco Elbrecht and Anna Kästel with the finished DNA metabarcoding library.