Universal mtDNA fragment for Cervidae barcoding species identification using phylogeny and preliminary analysis of machine learning approach

The aim of the study was to use total DNA obtained from bone material to identify species of free-living animals based on the analysis of mtDNA fragments by molecular methods using accurate bioinformatics tools Bayesian approach and the machine learning approach. In our research, we present a case study of successful species identification based on degraded samples of bone, with the use of short mtDNA fragments. For better barcoding, we used molecular and bioinformatics methods. We obtained a partial sequence of the mitochondrial cytochrome b (Cytb) gene for Capreolus capreolus, Dama dama, and Cervus elaphus, that can be used for species affiliation. The new sequences have been deposited in GenBank, enriching the existing Cervidae mtDNA base. We have also analysed the effect of barcodes on species identification from the perspective of the machine learning approach. Machine learning approaches of BLOG and WEKA were compared with distance-based (TaxonDNA) and tree-based (NJ tree) methods based on the discrimination accuracy of the single barcodes. The results indicated that BLOG and WEKAs SMO classifier and NJ tree performed better than TaxonDNA in discriminating Cervidae species, with BLOG and WEKAs SMO classifier performing the best.