Support for the Collection of Genetic Resources, Louisiana State University Museum of Natural History

路易斯安那州立大学自然科学博物馆（LSUMNS）的遗传资源收藏可能是世界上最大和最活跃的野生脊椎动物冷冻组织收藏。 它包含近40，000个标本和超过100，000个冷冻组织和提取物样本（例如，DNA、蛋白质和抗血清）。 在过去的五年里，该收藏馆向来自10个国家的研究人员提供了2,000多份冷冻组织样本。 在同一时期，已经产生了80多份依赖LSUMNS组织和提取物的出版物和论文。 在未来的几年里，随着越来越多的研究人员转向比较分子方法，以及LSUMNS收集的增长，对组织和组织提取物的需求预计将大幅上升，并成为遗传材料的储存库和来源。 分子技术和方法学的改进将导致系统学家和群体遗传学家（目前收藏的主要用户）对标本的需求增加，并将导致非传统来源-生态学家，行为学家，野生动物管理者，流行病学家和其他比较分子生物学家对收藏的兴趣更大。 该藏品已经感受到了来自鸟类生态学家和行为学家的影响，他们对从历史（系统发育）的角度解释其丰富的生活史数据感兴趣。 LSUMNS系列必须满足预期的需求增长。 由于博物馆积极的收集和征集组织和组织提取物的计划，收藏品正在迅速增长。 该计划的目的不仅是增加持有量，而且还挽救和集中组织和遗传提取物，否则可能会分散和研究界无法获得。 该项目将支持维修，更换和添加新的超冷冷冻机及其报警和备份系统。 它还将协助储存和准备冷冻标本并将其邮寄给其他机构的研究人员。

The Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science (LSUMNS) Collection of Genetic Resources is probably the largest and most active collection of wild vertebrate frozen tissues in the world. It contains nearly 40,000 specimens and over 100,000 samples of frozen tissues and extracts (e.g., DNA, proteins, and antisera). In the last five years, the Collection has given more than 2,000 samples of frozen tissues to researchers form 10 countries. During the same period, more than 80 publications and theses relying on LSUMNS tissues and extracts have been produced. In the years to come, demands for tissues and tissue extracts are expected to rise substantially as more and more researchers turn to comparative molecular methods and as the LSUMNS Collection grows and becomes better known as a repository and source of genetic materials. Improvements in molecular technology and methodology will cause an increase in specimen requests form systematists and population geneticists (currently the Collection s main users), and will lead to greater interest in the Collection form nontraditi onal sources -- ecologists, behaviorists, wildlife managers, epidemiologists, and other comparative molecular biologists. Already, the Collection is feeling an impact particularly from bird ecologists and behaviorists interested in an historical (phylogenetic) perspective from which to interpret their copious life- history data. The LSUMNS Collection must meet this expected increase in demand. The Collection is growing rapidly as a result of the Museum s aggressive program of collection and soliciting tissues and tissue extracts. This program is intended not only to increase holdings but also to salvage and centralize tissues and genetic extracts that might otherwise be scattered and unavailable to the research community. This project will support repairing, replacing, and adding new ultracold freezers and their alarms and backup systems. It will also assist in storing and in preparing and mailing of frozen specimens to researchers at other institutions.