High-throughput sequencing outperforms traditional morphological methods in Blue Catfish diet analysis and reveals novel insights into diet ecology.

Blue Catfish are an invasive, yet economically important species in the Chesapeake Bay. However, their impact on the trophic ecology of this system is not well understood. In order to provide in-depth analysis of predation by Blue Catfish, we identified prey items using high-throughput DNA sequencing (HTS) of entire gastrointestinal tracts from 134 samples using two genetic markers, mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) and the nuclear 18S ribosomal RNA gene.