Upgrading the LSU Collection of Herpetological Genetic Resources to Liquid Nitrogen Storage

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The Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science Collection of Genetic Resources is one of the largest and most active collections of wild vertebrate frozen tissues in the world. It contains more than 100,000 samples of frozen tissues and tissue extracts (e.g., DNA, proteins, and antisera) from over 52,000 individual vertebrate specimens. The Collection is housed in 13 ultracold freezers, but needs for its protection to be moved to liquid nitrogen (LN) storage. Ultracold freezers have a minimum temperature of -80oC, whereas liquid nitrogen has a temperature of -150oC. The colder temperature would preserve the tissues more effectively, and LN storage would protect the specimens from damage caused by electric power outages, which are not uncommon in Louisiana. In addition, many of the herpetological samples in the Collection require substantial curatorial attention, including transfer from old containers to Nunc tubes, database updating, and cross referencing with voucher specimens. This grant would fund the transfer of herpetological specimens from ultracold freezer storage to LN over the next three years. It would also fund the upgrade of the herpetological collection in the process. In the future, the rest of the Collection would be moved to LN storage. Specifically, the project would entail purchasing two LN freezers and associated equipment, which would be capable of holding about 60,000 samples, and employing a herpetology graduate student as a curatorial assistant to oversee the move. The curatorial assistant would review the packaging and data of each of our ca. 15,000 herpetological specimens while moving the samples to LN freezers. The project would have several benefits for the Collection and the research community. The herpetological specimens would be better protected, and their data would be verified, making them more useful as specimens. The graduate curatorial assistant performing the work would gain training in the curation of frozen genetic collections, a skill that will become increasingly important as the number of these collections grows. The research community will benefit from improved curation and care of the Collection in general. From 1995 through 2000, the Collection accessioned 15,817 tissue specimens from 22 countries and provided 285 grants consisting of 3,908 tissues to researchers in 11 countries, plus the USA. Since 1995, at least 240 theses, papers, and books containing results based on comparisons of the Collection's tissues and extracts were published. The contribution of the Collection to the productivity of the research community will grow directly as a result of the grant.