CSBR: Natural History: Preserving the genomes of the type specimens in the Museum of Comparative Zoology

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Species are the basic units of biodiversity. To be recognized, species have to be described and named based on physical specimens, generally known as type specimens or name-bearing specimens. These type specimens must be registered and deposited in a public institution, typically a natural history museum, where they are available to the scientific community for further study. Traditionally, such specimens, whether bones or a dry skin, a pinned insect, or a specimen preserved in fluid, have been stored on museum shelves. However, these conditions are suboptimal for the long-term preservation of their precious DNA. To stop DNA degradation in type specimens, this award provides a means to subsample and cryo-preserve most of the primary types in the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) to ensure that genomic work can be conducted in the future. In addition, the project provides an opportunity for students to be trained in museum sciences and to work in a state-of-the-art facility for cryopreservation. More than 31,000 data based primary types of non-fossil species are currently housed in the collections of the MCZ. These are preserved in a variety of ways, both dry (e.g., bones, skins, corals, sponges and sea stars) and wet (e.g., ethanol, formalin), but few of these are cryopreserved, and thus their DNA has been degrading rapidly over time. The principal aim of this project is to prevent further DNA degradation in most of the MCZ primary types by subsampling ca. 17,000 specimens and depositing them in the MCZ Cryogenic Collection—a facility where specimens are stored in vapor liquid nitrogen freezers at approximately -167 °C, a gold standard to preserve genetic resources. The MCZ becomes the first natural history museum to conduct a concerted effort to stop degradation of DNA in a large number of its name-bearing specimens. This will ensure the possibility that in the future, every name-bearing specimen may have the possibility to have a sequenced genome associated with it. In addition, the widescale preservation of genetic material these types will have impacts beyond science, providing a resource for future discovery. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.