Scanning electron microscopy vouchers and genomic data from an individual specimen: maximizing the utility of delicate and rare specimens

摘要

Specimen vouchering is a critical aspect of systematics, especially in genetic studies where the identity of a DNA sample needs to be assured. It can be difficult to obtain a high quality voucher after DNA extraction when dealing with tiny and delicate invertebrates that often do not survive the extraction procedure intact. Likewise, once a whole specimen has been extracted from, it is no longer useful for scanning electron microscopic examination. This paper discusses the use of a single specimen for both low temperature scanning electron microscopy and DNA extraction. This process allows full documentation of all external characteristics of an organism and ample whole genomic DNA extraction for DNA sequencing.