DNA extraction from dry museum beetles without conferring external morphological damage

A 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 deal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2007-03, Vol.2 (3), p.e272-e272
Main Authors: Gilbert, M Thomas P, Moore, Wendy, Melchior, Linea, Worobey, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Animals
Annealing
Arthropods
Base Sequence
Beetles
Binding sites
Carabidae
Cicindela dorsalis
Cloning
Coleoptera
Coleoptera - genetics
Cytochrome
Cytochrome-c oxidase
Damage
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
DNA - genetics
DNA - isolation & purification
DNA Primers
DNA, Mitochondrial - genetics
Evolution, Molecular
Evolutionary Biology
Experiments
Extraction
Fragments
Gene Amplification - genetics
Genes
Genetic research
Genetic Speciation
Genetics and Genomics/Population Genetics
Insects
Laboratories
Mitochondrial DNA
Morphology
Museums
Nucleic acids
Oxidase
Oxidases
Phenols
Polymerase chain reaction
Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods
Population genetics
Rare species
Studies
Taxonomy
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Description
Summary:A 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. We 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 approximately 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. This method offers a means of obtaining useful genetic information from rare insects without conferring external morphological damage.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0000272