I am an student of entomological field, I am interested to work on DNA barconding of beetles, I have some fresh collection and some Museum specimens as well. I am not much clear that whether Museum specimens are suitable for DNA extraction or not. I will appreciate your kind and valuable suggestions.
Pushkin Sergey Viktorovich right statements. It really depends on the age of the samples. During my PhD thesis, I was dealing with old alcohol arthropods with an age of 15 to 30 years and it was impossible to extract DNA from them as I was really eager to do that. Instead I used a DNA extraction method to clear these specimens to inspect them under microscope for accurate identification for further biodiversity calculations. Just check the link below:
Article Techniques for clearing and mounting Collembola from old eth...
Maybe it is interesting for you colleagues in soil zoology.
Yes, it is a method of species identification using a short section of DNA from a specific gene or genes. After DNA isolation one may do DNA barcoding.
Yes, although the older specimens (or specimens not preserved well) often have more degraded DNA and you might not have a full barcode as the DNA is too fragmented and the primers will fail. Then you will have to do nested primers.
It all depends on the age of the sample.
If his age is more than two years old I would not do it. As it will take longer to identify gaps. Although for rare and valuable samples, coding was done with the age of 15 years.
Regards, Pushkin Sergey Viktorovich
Pushkin Sergey Viktorovich right statements. It really depends on the age of the samples. During my PhD thesis, I was dealing with old alcohol arthropods with an age of 15 to 30 years and it was impossible to extract DNA from them as I was really eager to do that. Instead I used a DNA extraction method to clear these specimens to inspect them under microscope for accurate identification for further biodiversity calculations. Just check the link below:
Article Techniques for clearing and mounting Collembola from old eth...
Maybe it is interesting for you colleagues in soil zoology.
In addition to my answer. I did not elaborate, I meant dry samples of beetles. If stored properly in alcohols, there is a high chance of getting a positive result.
Thanks Pushkin Sergey Viktorovich for your comment about my statement. DNA extraction was not my main target during the PhD thesis, but I additionally liked to do that and at the time of my doctoral work, some experts told me that it may not be possible to extract DNA of the old specimens even in alcohol. However, it would be rather nice to try it. However, it is a bad chance that I do not have anymore access to my PhD work specimens. Otherwise, I could try to do that.
Dear Elaheh Daghighi Masouleh
I passed on samples of gamasid mites that poretic necrophages on beetles. There were 7-year-old samples in alcohol. In Germany, Dr. Neuberg said everything went well. Maybe this was due to the small size of the sample and it fixed well in ethanol. But if we take samples more large (like all insects), then the processes of tissue decomposition, apparently, cannot be stopped.
Regards, Pushkin Sergey Viktorovich
Technically yes. Over 100 years old specimen of a butterfly has been used and its DNA was successfully sequenced. See Zhang et al (2020) Genome 63:195 - 202.
Yes, definitely you can DNA bar code dry museum insect specimens. The following links might help you in this aspect.
https://journals.plos.org > plosone > article
https://www.tandfonline.com > doi > full
https://www.researchgate.net > publication
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