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（例如DNA，蛋白质和抗血清）的样本。在过去的五年里，该组织已经向10个国家的研究人员提供了2000多个冷冻组织样本。在同一时期，发表了80多篇依靠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，并成为遗传物质的储存库和来源。分子技术和方法的改进将引起系统学家和群体遗传学家（目前是该收集的主要用户）对标本的需求增加，并将引起非传统来源（生态学家、行为学家、野生动物管理学家、流行病学家和其他比较分子生物学家）对该收集的更大兴趣。该收藏已经感受到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）角度解释丰富的生活史数据感兴趣。LSUMNS系列必须满足这种预期的需求增长。由于博物馆积极开展组织和组织提取物的收集和征集活动，藏品正在迅速增加。这个项目的目的不仅是增加馆藏，而且是挽救和集中组织和基因提取物，否则这些组织和基因提取物可能会分散，无法为研究界所用。该项目将支持维修、更换和增加新的超低温冰柜及其报警和备用系统。它还将协助储存、准备和邮寄冷冻标本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.