The role of taxonomic expertise in interpretation of metabarcoding studies

Abstract The performance of DNA metabarcoding approaches for characterizing biodiversity can be influenced by multiple factors. Here, we used morphological assessment taxa in zooplankton samples to develop a large barcode database and assess the congruence taxonomic identification with under different conditions. We analysed assignment metabarcoded using two genetic markers (COI, 18S V1–2), types clustering into molecular operational units (OTUs, ZOTUs), three methods (RDP Classifier, BLASTn GenBank, local database). includes 1042 COI 1108 (SSU) sequences, added new high-quality sequences GenBank both markers, including 109 contributions at species level. number phyla detected identified phylum varied between marker among assignments. Blasting metabarcodes generated unique identify OTUs ZOTUs. argue that multi-marker approach combined expertise curated, vouchered, increases taxon detection metabarcoding, its potential as tool surveys.