[Nhcoll-l] Best tissues to take for mammal specimens

Tue Oct 17 11:47:12 EDT 2023

Hi All,
Cody beat me to it. I would suggest that as we move forward and grow collections into resources available to a much wider range of users (e.g., pathobiology, global health) that we as a community are not maximizing the breadth of sampling and utility of our specimens. The gold standard is a true "holistic specimen". Below is an example of what we took on a recent trip.
Sample Collection - Panama Picante Project

part
preservative
container
storage
Heart, lung
none
cryovial
Liquid nitrogen
Lung (subsample for screening in Japan)
RNALater
cryovial
Ambient for a day then
liquid nitrogen or -80C
Whole lung (fixed for lung modeling)
formalin
Scintillation vial
Ambient
Kidney, spleen
none
cryovial

Liquid nitrogen
Liver
none
cryovial

Liquid nitrogen
Tissue subsamples for Gorgas
none
cryovial

Liquid nitrogen
Large intestine w/feces
none
cryovial

Liquid nitrogen
Blood (dry)
Nubuto
envelope
Ambient to -20C
Blood (smear)
Methanol
slide
Ambient to -20C
Oral swab (viral)
DNA/RNA shield
cryovial
Liquid nitrogen
Anal swab (viral)
DNA/RNA shield
cryovial
Liquid nitrogen
Wing swab (fungal)
none
cryovial
Ambient to -20C
Oral swab (fungal)
none
cryovial
Ambient to -20C
Anal swab (fungal)
none
cryovial
Ambient to -20C
Ectoparasites
95% EtOH
Cryovial or
scintillation vial
Ambient to -20C
Endoparasites
70% EtOH
scintillation vial
Ambient to -20C
Embryos (small)
none
cryovial
Liquid nitrogen
Embryos (large)
95% EtOH
20mL scintillation vial
Ambient to -20C

______________________________________________________________

Jonathan L. Dunnum Ph.D. (he, him, his)
Senior Collection Manager
Division of Mammals, Museum of Southwestern Biology
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
(505) 277-9262
Fax (505) 277-1351

Chair, Systematic Collections Committee, American Society of Mammalogists
Latin American Fellowship Committee, ASM

MSB Mammals website: http://www.msb.unm.edu/mammals/index.html
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MSBDivisionofMammals

Shipping Address:
Museum of Southwestern Biology
Division of Mammals
University of New Mexico
CERIA Bldg 83, Room 204
Albuquerque, NM 87131
________________________________
From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Mullon, Madeleine <madeleine_mullon at fas.harvard.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2023 9:27 AM
To: Hawkins, Rebecca K. <rkhawkins at ou.edu>; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Best tissues to take for mammal specimens

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Hi Rebecca,

If I recall correctly, the tissue found to have the greatest genomic DNA load was spleen. However, seeing as it’s impractical to locate the spleen on many small mammals, we opt for liver and muscle here at MCZ. Our current standard practice is to take 1 vial of liver and 1 vial of skeletal muscle for storage in our cryogenic collection. Our thinking is that the liver is more rich in DNA yield, and the muscle is more stable in long-term cold storage. This works for most of our specimens, which tend to be local species that are plentiful. If the specimen we are prepping is of particular interest or rarity, we will often take extra if the animal is large enough to do so. If the specimen is too decomposed, we may skip liver (since it autolyzes so quickly) and instead take 2 muscle samples. We don’t typically save other tissue samples unless they have been specifically requested (heart tissue, skin samples in RNALater, etc.).

There was a good article out of Texas Tech about the cold preservation of different tissue types, and the time interval at which the genetic material degrades at different temperatures. Skeletal muscle is most stable over time, though not as high in yield as spleen or liver, which both tend to autolyze quickly. Here: 10.1093/jmammal/gyab009<http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyab009>

This is a different paper I found while I was looking for the aforementioned one, more to do with preservation of RNA in liver and spleen: 10.1371/journal.pone.0167391<https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0167391>

Best,

Madeleine Mullon

She/they

MCZ Mammalogy

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From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Hawkins, Rebecca K.
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2023 9:42 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Best tissues to take for mammal specimens

Hello all,

Does anyone know of primary literature or have advice on the most useful tissue samples to take when preparing mammal specimens? We are looking to reevaluate what tissue samples we currently take and which tissues are stored together. We currently take three tissue tubes per specimen for storage in liquid nitrogen: 1) heart and kidney, 2) liver, and 3) muscle. Thank you.

Rebecca Hawkins (she/her)

Curatorial Associate

Sam Noble Museum

2401 Chautauqua Ave.

Norman, OK 73072
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