[Nhcoll-l] eDNA voucher question

[Thomas Labedz]

NHCOLL readers
In an attempt to clarify my question to another responder I’ve copied below a more thorough explanation. Thanks to you all for your time and knowledge.
Thomas Labedz
University of Nebraska State Museum

The DNA work was done at another university, one that does not have collections to maintain vouchers. The DNA was collected and analyzed from these vouchers, the paper written and submitted for publication, and the author/researcher wants to deposit the individual fish as vouchers. Shoal Chub (Macrhybopsis hyostoma) are small, the largest maybe 5 cm long. My institution does not have any of the removed tissues that were analyzed for DNA, nor any products from that DNA, only the fish themselves. The researcher’s preference is for individual containers for each specimen should someone want to extract new tissue for DNA. Doing so would mean an approximately 10X increase in shelf space and material necessary to maintain these vouchers. Since we do not have the DNA samples or products, and are holding only the fish themselves, I submit that we should individually package each fish with its information but maintain all the samples from the same collecting locality in joint jars (4 jars instead of 35). Yes, cross-contamination would potentially occur between those jointly held samples, but since they are from the same collecting site cross-contamination would also be true in the natural environment where they were collected. Being small one option is to stuff them into individual tubes and put them in the freezers with tissues from other specimens where the vouchers are at this institution. That might work in this case but doesn’t lend itself  to ready access for species verification, nor does it function well as policy or protocol should another project produce larger numbers of samples from larger species.
Guess I’m addressing the balance between scientific need and budgetary/space constraints.


From: John E Simmons <simmons.johne at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2019 9:26 AM
To: Thomas Labedz <tlabedz1 at unl.edu>
Cc: NHCOLL-L at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] eDNA voucher question

Tom,
I am not sure I understand the question. Do you mean the fish are vouchers from which DNA has been extracted and you want to keep the specimen separate to link it to the DNA sample, or do you mean fish from which DNA will be extracted in the future?

You will get contamination of the alcohol around the specimen from DNA from other specimens if you house them all together because protein is extracted over time by the alcohol (for example, see von Endt 1994, "Spirit collections: a preliminary analysis of some organic materials found in the storage fluid of mammals," Collection Forum 10(1):10-19). Whether that contamination would affect the DNA in the fish specimen itself has not been looked at, to my knowledge, but is an interesting question.

If you are storing these as whole-specimen vouchers from which DNA has already been sampled, I would go with Andy's suggestion of vials with polyester fiber plugs. If you are storing these for future DNA extraction, then they should be in 95.6% ETOH if they must be kept in alcohol.

Please let me know if I have misunderstood your question.

--John

John E. Simmons
Writer and Museum Consultant
Museologica
and
Associate Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
and
Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia
Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima


On Thu, Feb 21, 2019 at 4:41 PM Thomas Labedz <tlabedz1 at unl.edu<mailto:tlabedz1 at unl.edu>> wrote:
Greetings from snowy central North America!
Has anyone developed policy or protocol for the receipt, treatment, and maintenance of eDNA fish voucher specimens? Would you share? The individual fish are small and the researcher recommends keeping each individual in a separate container (how they were delivered) to prohibit cross contamination of DNA via the ethanol solution. That is understandable but will utilize lots of space and containers.
Thomas
Thomas E. Labedz, Collections Manager
Division of Zoology and Division of Botany
University of Nebraska State Museum
Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.A.
tlabedz1 at unl.edu<mailto:tlabedz1 at unl.edu>

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