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Sperm contamination in archived and contemporary herring samples
Author(s) -
MITCHELL DANIELLE,
McALLISTER PATRICK,
STICK KURT,
HAUSER LORENZ
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
molecular ecology resources
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.96
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1755-0998
pISSN - 1755-098X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-8286.2007.01840.x
Subject(s) - contamination , clupea , biology , milt , pacific herring , herring , ancient dna , fishery , environmental dna , fish <actinopterygii> , ecology , environmental health , biodiversity , medicine , population
Studies using archived scales and otoliths to examine ancient fish populations have become increasingly common, despite many methodological challenges in ancient DNA research. Here, we describe a case of DNA contamination in both modern and historical samples of Pacific herring ( Clupea pallasii ), where the source of the contamination is likely from milt spillage during collection. We describe a series of experiments to remove contamination using pre‐extraction wash treatments. Though contamination was easily removed from contemporary fin clippings, no method was successful at removing contamination from historical scales. We discuss the implications of our findings to the genetic analysis of archived samples.