Mining museums for historical DNA: advances and challenges in museomics

Area of Science:

• Paleogenomics
• Molecular Evolution
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Historical DNA (hDNA) from museum and herbarium specimens provides valuable data on organismal history.
• Applications include tracking genetic erosion, discovering new species, resolving evolutionary relationships, and identifying disease origins.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight the potential of hDNA in understanding biological history.
• To identify the need for standardized best-practices in hDNA isolation, processing, and analysis.
• To emphasize the necessity of further research for method development and bias correction.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of existing hDNA studies and their methodologies.
• Identification of challenges arising from specimen diversity (preparation, tissue, age, collection history).
• Discussion of data degradation and biases in hDNA analysis.

Main Results:

• hDNA has demonstrated significant utility in diverse fields of biological research.
• Current methods lack standardization due to the heterogeneity of historical specimens.
• DNA degradation introduces asymmetries and biases that require correction.

Conclusions:

• Further experimental work, particularly with time-series collections, is crucial.
• Development of improved analytical methods to correct for DNA degradation is essential.
• Standardized protocols will maximize the potential of hDNA and justify destructive sampling.