Molecular Genetic Methods in Studying of the Food Spectrum of Godlewski’s Sculpin Abyssocottus (Limnocottus) godlewskii (Dybowski, 1874)

For the first time, the digestive tract contents of the Godlewski’s sculpin Abyssocottus (Limnocottus) godlewskii (Dybowski, 1874), an endemic species of Lake Baikal, were analyzed using molecular genetic methods. Using next-generation sequencing methods, 94 sequences were obtained, assigned to 31 operational taxonomic units. It was shown that the sequences of fish (77.36%), amphipods (18.89%) and insects (0.97%) dominate in terms of relative DNA representation. An analysis of data on the distribution of groups of organisms, the DNA of which was found in the food spectrum of fish, was carried out. Despite the advantages of metabarcoding, low representation of nucleotide sequences of species inhabiting Lake Baikal in reference databases complicates their identification.