First eDNA-based record of Carcharhinus melanopterus (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824) (Carcharhiniformes, Carcharhinidae) from Mantanani Island, Sabah, Malaysia
The first molecular occurrence record of the Blacktip Reef Shark, Carcharhinus melanopterus (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824), is documented from Mantanani Island, Sabah, Malaysia, based on environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding. Surface seawater collected from two seagrass sites on 9 May 2024 and analyzed using MiFish 12S rRNA primers. A single 155-bp operational taxonomic unit matching C. melanopterus with 100% identity to MitoFish reference sequences was recovered exclusively from one of the sampled sites (20,881 reads). No reads were detected at the other site or in negative controls. Sequence data are deposited in NCBI SRA (BioProject PRJNA1460790).
Authors
- Cheng-Ann Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9168-1910)
- Juanita Joseph (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6995-7973)
- Wei-Ling Ng
- Tadashi Kajita (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1232-4179)
- Muhamad Arif Ng Abdullah
Institutions
- Universiti of Malaysia Sabah (MY)
- University of the Ryukyus (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Check List
- Published
- 2026-07-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.15560/22.4.667
- Primary Topic
- Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Universiti Malaysia Sabah
- Sabah Biodiversity Centre