Abstract Detail

Botanical DNA Banking and the Systematics Community: Working Together to Meet Future Research Challenges

Applequist, Wendy [1].

Recommendations from the U.S. Workshop on DNA Banking.

As sequencing becomes cheaper per nucleotide while field work becomes more costly and challenging, acquisition of vouchered samples is increasingly the rate-limiting step for phylogenetic and barcoding studies. DNA banking holds the promise of minimizing the sample-collection bottleneck and facilitating a more efficient research workflow. At present, DNA banks in the United States hold a limited selection of material, and many researchers are unfamiliar with the holdings that do exist. Discussions among representative stakeholders at the NSF-funded U.S. Workshop on DNA Banking, held in St. Louis in 2013, formed the basis for a white paper of recommendations to the U.S. biological community. These recommendations fall roughly into the subject areas of infrastructure, networking, and collection development, and include: Practices for sample acquisition, storage, and transfer should be chosen to maintain suitable sample quality and ensure legal and ethical use. Better networking is needed to make holdings transparent and easily accessible; minimally, all repositories should be listed on iDigBio. The research community should seek to increase taxonomic diversity of banked samples, and especially to improve sampling of the most neglected groups. Mechanisms to support broad-scale collecting and to encourage proper disposal of leftover research materials should be developed. Most ambitiously, a long-term goal should be set of making all taxa native to or naturalized in the U.S. available in domestic repositories.

1 - Missouri Botanical Garden, PO Box 299, PO Box 299, St. Louis, MO, 63166-0299, USA, 314-577-0267

Keywords:
DNA banking
white paper
networking.

Presentation Type: Symposium or Colloquium Presentation
Session: SY07
Location: Whitewater/Grove
Date: Tuesday, July 29th, 2014
Time: 4:45 PM
Number: SY07008
Abstract ID:126
Candidate for Awards:None