Untitled

Abstract

16Metabarcoding can rapidly determine the species composition of bulk samples and thus aids 17 ecosystem assessment. However, it is essential to use primer sets that minimize amplification bias 18 among taxa to maximize species recovery. Despite this fact, the performance of primer sets employed 19 for metabarcoding terrestrial arthropods has not been sufficiently evaluated. Thus this study tests the 20 performance of 36 primer sets on a mock community containing 374 species. Amplification success 21 was assessed with gradient PCRs and the 21 most promising primer sets selected for metabarcoding. 22 These 21 primer sets where also tested by metabarcoding a Malaise trap sample. We identified eight 23 primer sets, mainly those including inosine and/or high degeneracy, that recovered more than 95% of 24 the species in the mock community. Results from the Malaise trap sample were congruent with the 25 PeerJ Preprints | https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27801v2 | CC BY 4.0 Open Access | rec