Ricerc@Sapienza

We are using the metabarcoding tecnique on sedimentary DNA (sedDNA) from three volcanic Italian lakes: Lago Grande di Monticchio, Lago di Nemi, and Lago di Martignano. At Monticchio, we have already identified over 90 plant taxa from a long sediment core covering the period from 1.4 to 31 thousand years before present. To maximize our results, we have developed new strategies to improve DNA extraction from mineral-adsorbed samples and counteract PCR inhibition. We are also testing new probes designed to capture short plant DNA sequences using shotgun sequencing.