To bee, or not to bee? One leg is the question
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To bee, or not to bee? One leg is the question. / Cavill, Emily Louisa; Liu, Shanlin; Zhou, Xin; Gilbert, M. Thomas P.
In: Molecular Ecology Resources, Vol. 22, No. 5, 2022, p. 1868-1874.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - To bee, or not to bee? One leg is the question
AU - Cavill, Emily Louisa
AU - Liu, Shanlin
AU - Zhou, Xin
AU - Gilbert, M. Thomas P.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Temporal genomic studies that utilise museum insects are invaluable for understanding changes in ecological processes in which insects are essential, such as wild and agricultural pollination, seed dispersal, nutrient cycling, and food web architecture, to name a few. However, given such analyses come at the cost of physical damage to museum specimens required for such work, there is a natural interest in the development and/or application of methods to minimise the damage incurred. We explored the efficacy of a recently published single stranded library construction protocol, on DNA extracted from single legs taken from eight dry-preserved historic bee specimens collected 150 years ago. Specifically, the DNA was extracted using a "minimally destructive" method that leaves the samples' exterior intact. Our sequencing data revealed not only that the endogenous DNA recovered from some of the samples was at a relatively high level (up to 58%), but that the complexity of the libraries was sufficient in the best samples to theoretically allow deeper sequencing to a predicted level of 69x genome coverage. As such, these combined protocols offer the possibility to generate sequencing data at levels that are suitable for many common evolutionary genomic analyses, while simultaneously minimising the damage conferred to the valuable dried museum bee samples. Furthermore, we anticipate that these methods may have much wider application on many other invertebrate taxa stored in a similar way. We hope that the results from this research may be able to contribute to the increased willingness of museums to loan much needed dry-preserved insects for future genomic studies.
AB - Temporal genomic studies that utilise museum insects are invaluable for understanding changes in ecological processes in which insects are essential, such as wild and agricultural pollination, seed dispersal, nutrient cycling, and food web architecture, to name a few. However, given such analyses come at the cost of physical damage to museum specimens required for such work, there is a natural interest in the development and/or application of methods to minimise the damage incurred. We explored the efficacy of a recently published single stranded library construction protocol, on DNA extracted from single legs taken from eight dry-preserved historic bee specimens collected 150 years ago. Specifically, the DNA was extracted using a "minimally destructive" method that leaves the samples' exterior intact. Our sequencing data revealed not only that the endogenous DNA recovered from some of the samples was at a relatively high level (up to 58%), but that the complexity of the libraries was sufficient in the best samples to theoretically allow deeper sequencing to a predicted level of 69x genome coverage. As such, these combined protocols offer the possibility to generate sequencing data at levels that are suitable for many common evolutionary genomic analyses, while simultaneously minimising the damage conferred to the valuable dried museum bee samples. Furthermore, we anticipate that these methods may have much wider application on many other invertebrate taxa stored in a similar way. We hope that the results from this research may be able to contribute to the increased willingness of museums to loan much needed dry-preserved insects for future genomic studies.
KW - aDNA
KW - entomology
KW - genomics
KW - Hymenoptera
KW - NONDESTRUCTIVE DNA EXTRACTION
KW - ANCIENT
U2 - 10.1111/1755-0998.13578
DO - 10.1111/1755-0998.13578
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 34957693
VL - 22
SP - 1868
EP - 1874
JO - Molecular Ecology
JF - Molecular Ecology
SN - 0962-1083
IS - 5
ER -
ID: 290178872