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Retrieval of hundreds of nuclear loci from herbarium specimens
Author(s) -
Hart Michelle L.,
Forrest Laura L.,
Nicholls James A.,
Kidner Catherine A.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
taxon
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1996-8175
pISSN - 0040-0262
DOI - 10.12705/655.9
Subject(s) - herbarium , treasure , biodiversity , biology , dna sequencing , nuclear dna , evolutionary biology , genus , geography , genetics , dna , ecology , archaeology , gene , mitochondrial dna
Herbaria are unparalleled collections of biodiversity information representing the world's flora. However, this treasure has remained largely inaccessible to genetic studies, frequently limited by the low yields of poor‐quality DNA. Next‐generation sequencing (NGS) has transformed every field of biological research. The different strategies for accessing genetic data using NGS are changing the direction of biodiversity research—we are no longer constrained by a relatively small number of markers for non‐model organisms, by time and cost limited sample sizes, or by incomplete datasets due to recalcitrant DNA extractions or PCR amplification failure. Here we show that targeted enrichment through hybrid capture can be used to generate hundreds of kilobases of nuclear sequence data of the Neotropical genus Inga , from herbarium specimens as old as 180 years and using as little as 16 ng of degraded DNA.