Abstract
BackgroundA large number of dry-preserved insect specimens exist in collections around the world that might be useful for genetic analyses. However, until now, the recovery of nucleic acids from such specimens has involved at least the partial destruction of the specimen. This is clearly undesirable when dealing with rare species or otherwise important specimens, such as type specimens.MethodologyWe describe a method for the extraction of PCR-amplifiable mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from dry insects without causing external morphological damage. Using PCR to amplify ≈220 bp of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase I, and 250–345 bp fragments of the multi-copy, nuclear 28s ribosomal DNA gene, we demonstrate the efficacy of this method on beetles collected up to 50 years ago.ConclusionsThis method offers a means of obtaining useful genetic information from rare insects without conferring external morphological damage.
Highlights
Dry insect specimens are commonly held in entomology collections, constituting over 900,000 described species and an unknown number of undescribed species
Since standard DNA extraction methods involve at least partial specimen destruction [4,5] they are unattractive for use on rare or otherwise important specimens
To overcome these limitations we have developed a method of extracting DNA without conferring visible, external morphological damage to such specimens
Summary
Dry insect specimens are commonly held in entomology collections, constituting over 900,000 described species and an unknown number of undescribed species. Since standard DNA extraction methods involve at least partial specimen destruction [4,5] they are unattractive for use on rare or otherwise important specimens (e.g. type specimens, voucher specimens). To overcome these limitations we have developed a method of extracting DNA without conferring visible, external morphological damage to such specimens. This method offers a means of obtaining useful genetic information from rare insects without conferring external morphological damage
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