An Application of Tissue and DNA Banking for Genomics and Conservation: The Ambrose Monell Cryo-Collection (AMCC)

Abstract

With the advent of the so-called genomic revolution and improved techniques of DNA analysis, combined with a rapidly vanishing biodiversity, the systematic community has been facing a remarkable—and often neglected—challenge for the past 50 years: to preserve genetic resources issued from research. The preservation and long-term storage of biological specimens’ derived materials (e.g., DNA extracts) and associated data are essential to ensure comparability and reproducibility in all areas of biological research. Natural history museums and herbaria around the world are now in a position to face the exciting and challenging task of preserving the genetic library of life for generations to come. However, the lack and/or poor condition of preservation of molecular vouchers generated from often fragile and rare specimens have been problems too often underestimated or unable to be addressed due to lack of funding or, more pointedly, lack of interest in preservation of these important research materials. The present article does not seek to reiterate the plea for genetic resource collections introduce by Dessauer et al. in 1984 (and more recently by Sheldon, 2001, and Savolainen and Reeves, 2004). It seeks to bring these collections, and the issues of preservation of genetic resources, to the awareness of the systematic biology community through the case study of the American Museum of Natural History new cryogenic repository, the Ambrose Monell Collection for Molecular and Microbial Research (AMCC; website: http://research.amnh.org/ amcc/).