Abstract
Numerous papers have been published recently regarding deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) studies of museum insect specimens. Despite the great enthusiasm for such analyses, there continues to be a potential conflict between specimen maintenance and their use for experimental procedures, since DNA extraction methods are sample destructive. This has created a strong limitation for studies on museum specimens, making it impossible to work on rare or irreplaceable species. However, new methods for improving insect preservation have been recently published, together with new procedures for performing less destructive DNA extractions that combine specimen maintenance and DNA extraction.
Highlights
Recent innovations in molecular biology techniques have increased the importance of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA Á the carrier of genetic information) studies in evolutionary and conservation biology (Carter, Vogler, and Vane-Wright 1997; Dean and Ballard 2001; Fukatsu 1999; Hillis, Moritz, and Mable 1996; Quicke, Belshaw, and Lopez-Vaamonde 1999)
The availability of ‘easy to apply’ molecular techniques has led to an increased interest in museum collections, since they are extremely useful for studying extinct species at the molecular level and for performing biomolecular analyses on specimens previously studied at a morphological level only (Carter, Vogler, and Vane-Wright 1997; Dean and Ballard 2001; Fukatsu 1999; Hillis, Moritz, and Mable 1996; Quicke, Belshaw, and LopezVaamonde 1999; Vogler and Pearson 1996).The beginning of several DNA barcoding projects has increased the interest in museum collections, since they offer a huge amount of vouchered samples that can give rise to worldwide barcoding campaigns without any new field collection (Hebert et al 2002; Sovalainen et al 2005)
In the wake of this enthusiasm for recovering DNA from museum specimens (e.g., Cooper 1994; Houde and Braun 1988; Payne and Sorenson 2003), museum curators and conservators realized that there was a potential conflict between maintaining specimens and using them for experimental procedures (Graves and Braun 1992; Payne and Sorenson 2003)
Summary
Dipartimento di Biologia Animale, Universitadi Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy (Received 29 November 2007; final version received 14 February 2008). Numerous papers have been published recently regarding deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) studies of museum insect specimens. Despite the great enthusiasm for such analyses, there continues to be a potential conflict between specimen maintenance and their use for experimental procedures, since DNA extraction methods are sample destructive. This has created a strong limitation for studies on museum specimens, making it impossible to work on rare or irreplaceable species. New methods for improving insect preservation have been recently published, together with new procedures for performing less destructive DNA extractions that combine specimen maintenance and DNA extraction
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