To bee, or not to bee? One leg is the question

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary biology
• Genomics
• Entomology

Background:

• Temporal genomic studies using museum insects are crucial for understanding ecological changes.
• Genomic analysis often requires destructive sampling of valuable museum specimens.
• Minimizing damage to specimens is essential for preserving collections.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a single-stranded library construction protocol for DNA extracted from historic bee specimens.
• To assess the efficacy of a minimally destructive DNA extraction method.
• To determine if sufficient DNA quality and quantity can be obtained for evolutionary genomic analyses.

Main Methods:

• DNA extraction from single legs of eight dry-preserved bee specimens (150 years old) using a minimally destructive method.
• Application of a published single-stranded library construction protocol.
• High-throughput sequencing of extracted DNA.

Main Results:

• High endogenous DNA recovery (up to 58%) from some historic bee samples.
• Sufficient library complexity for deep sequencing (predicted 69x genome coverage in best samples).
• Successful generation of genomic data with minimal damage to specimens.

Conclusions:

• The combined protocols allow for valuable evolutionary genomic analyses while preserving museum specimens.
• This minimally destructive approach can be applied to other invertebrate taxa.
• The study encourages museums to loan dry-preserved insects for genomic research.