Identification of non-model mammal species using the MinION DNA sequencer from Oxford Nanopore.

Background: The Neotropics harbors the largest species richness of the planet; however, even in well-studied groups, there are potentially hundreds of species that lack a formal description, and likewise, many already described taxa are difficult to identify using morphology. Specifically in small mammals, complex morphological diagnoses have been facilitated by the use of molecular data, particularly from mitochondrial sequences, to obtain accurate species identifications. Obtaining mitochondrial markers implies the use of PCR and specific primers, which are largely absent for non-model organisms.