[Nhcoll-l] EDNA samples

Mon Aug 24 13:50:16 EDT 2020

Ironically, this topic was recently brought up at the ASIH Ichthyology and Herpetology Collections Committee meeting.  In short: yes... various institutions have been approached to house such things and there seems legitimately good reasons to house such samples in a natural history collection.  Some of the tricks are basically artifacts of how museums "normally" do things.  That is, we normally store things pre-sorted and identified and tagged by taxon and locality and cataloged into the appropriate taxonomic division.  In this case, most of that is unknown and the data we have are primarily locality and time, without taxon initially.  Eventually somebody can say what taxa are in that sample, but until then it is basically a tube of water, or scat or dirt, etc.  SO how then is it cataloged and in which division?   In fact, even after we know what's in the sample, how do we store it?  Do we try to isolate each DNA fragment by taxon (NO!!!!)... does the tube get cataloged by every applicable division?  Does the sample get subdivided so that each division has a subsample of the same thing? So many of the conversations are about details like that.  There are also some really fun practical issues such as, how do you import/export it?  Is it claimed as wildlife or just as water?  What happens when the water "becomes" wildlife (i.e. you import water and export crocodile DNA that was in the water all along)... does that impact any import/export regulations, etc.  Will wildlife agents assume you falsified the initial report?

In terms of regulatory compliance, would some agencies say that a researcher need a CITES export permit for water if it later turns out that it included DNA from elephants or freshwater dolphins or whatever?

Greg

****************
Gregory J. Watkins-Colwell
Sr. Collection Manager, Herpetology and Ichthyology
Division of Vertebrate Zoology
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
Main Office: 203-432-3791;  West Campus: 203-737-7568; Fax 203-432-9277

Package shipping address:
Greg Watkins-Colwell
Division of Vertebrate Zoology
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
170-210 Whitney Avenue
New Haven, CT 06511 USA
203-432-3791
******************

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Mandy Reid
Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2020 9:29 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] EDNA samples

I am wondering whether any museums are accepting EDNA (Environmental DNA) samples, such as water samples, animal scats etc., or whether you have been approached regarding storing such samples in museum collections?

Is this something that we should consider? It would be excellent if anyone is interested in a discussion around this as it is something Collections staff at the Australian Museum in Sydney have been approached about.

Cheers
Mandy

Dr Mandy Reid
Collection Manager | Malacology
Australian Museum  1 William Street Sydney NSW 2010 Australia
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