CSBR: Natural History: Infrastructure improvements to enhance the preservation and accessibility of the Collection of Genetic Resources at the LSU Museum of Natural Science

CSBR：自然历史：改善基础设施，以加强路易斯安那州立大学自然科学博物馆遗传资源收藏的保存和可及性

• 批准号: 1756475
• 负责人: Robb Brumfield
• 金额: $ 32.5万
• 依托单位: Louisiana State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-04-01 至 2025-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1756475&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CSBR; Natural; History; Infrastructure; improvements

In a world whose landscape is constantly changing through natural and anthropogenic forces, one of the most important functions of biological research collections is to preserve a permanent record of where and when a species occurred. Biological research collections allow scientists to understand both how changes in the landscape affect species and to forecast how future changes to the landscape could affect those species. As indicators of environmental health, specimens preserved in biological research collections provide human society with a vital tool that can be applied to a diversity of issues related to human health, including studies of infectious diseases or the affect that disasters had on the environment. For example, without biological research collections, tracking the entire arc of an emerging infectious zoonotic disease (one caused by the transfer of an infectious agent from animals to humans) would be challenging if there were no animal specimens to determine the wild species that served as a reservoir for the infectious agent. Along the Gulf Coast of the United States, determining the biological effect of large oil spills on the deep-water and coastal environments would be challenging without good documentation of when and where species occurred before spills. Biological research collections are available to fill these needs through careful preservation of specimens that document when and where a species occurred. This grant supports the Collection of Genetic Resources at the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science, one of the oldest and largest collections of frozen tissues (e.g. heart, liver, muscle tissues) and tissue extracts (e.g. DNA) of wild vertebrates. Since its inception in 1979, the Collection has been acknowledged in more than 1500 publications and theses. The grant will allow the Collection to continue supplying the research community with the highest quality genetic materials.The Collection of Genetic Resources at the LSU Museum of Natural Science houses genetic material from more than 140,000 individual wild animals representing over 8,000 species, with a rate of growth of ca. 10,000-15,000 samples per year from ca. 4,200 individuals. This collection is used by scientists working in a diversity of fields, and provides, on average, 2000 tissue subsamples to researchers around the globe each year. The Collection supplies genetic materials to the international community for research in genomics, molecular evolution, population genetics, ecology, wildlife management, forensics, epidemiology, environmental toxicology, and other areas. Whenever possible, tissues in the Collection are flash frozen in the field in liquid nitrogen to ensure the preservation of fragile biomaterials, such as RNA and proteins, required by the dramatically expanding field of genomics. Optimally, those flash frozen tissues are transferred at LSU to liquid nitrogen vapor freezers (-196 degrees C) for long-term archiving. However, the Museum's six liquid nitrogen freezers are now full. This award provides funds to purchase two additional liquid nitrogen vapor freezers for the bird and mammal specimens, and a safer, more efficient liquid nitrogen delivery system and to provide support for a graduate assistant to transfer specimens from ultracold to the new liquid nitrogen freezers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在一个自然和人为力量不断改变景观的世界里，生物研究收藏的最重要功能之一是保存一个物种何时何地出现的永久记录。生物研究藏品使科学家能够了解景观变化如何影响物种，并预测未来景观变化如何影响这些物种。作为环境健康的指标，保存在生物研究收藏中的标本为人类社会提供了一个重要工具，可用于与人类健康有关的各种问题，包括传染病或灾害对环境的影响的研究。例如，如果没有生物研究标本，追踪一种新出现的人畜共患传染病（由传染源从动物转移到人类引起的疾病）的整个过程将是一个挑战，如果没有动物标本来确定作为传染源的野生物种。在沿着美国墨西哥湾沿岸，如果没有关于泄漏前物种出现的时间和地点的良好记录，确定大规模石油泄漏对深水和沿海环境的生物影响将是一项挑战。生物研究收藏可通过仔细保存记录物种发生时间和地点的标本来满足这些需求。该赠款支持路易斯安那州立大学自然科学博物馆的遗传资源收藏，这是最古老和最大的野生脊椎动物冷冻组织（如心脏，肝脏，肌肉组织）和组织提取物（如DNA）收藏之一。自1979年成立以来，该收藏已在1500多份出版物和论文中得到认可。这笔赠款将使该收藏继续为研究界提供最高质量的遗传材料。路易斯安那州立大学自然科学博物馆的遗传资源收藏馆收藏了来自8，000多个物种的140，000多只野生动物的遗传材料，其增长率约为100%。每年10，000 - 15，000个样本，4,200人。该收集被在不同领域工作的科学家使用，并且平均每年向地球仪的研究人员提供2000个组织子样本。该收藏向国际社会提供遗传材料，用于基因组学、分子进化、种群遗传学、生态学、野生动物管理、法医学、流行病学、环境毒理学和其他领域的研究。 在可能的情况下，组织库中的组织在液氮中进行现场快速冷冻，以确保保存脆弱的生物材料，如RNA和蛋白质，这是急剧扩展的基因组学领域所需要的。最理想的情况是，这些快速冷冻的组织在LSU转移到液氮蒸气冷冻机（-196摄氏度）长期存档。然而，博物馆的六个液氮冷冻机现在已经满了。该奖项提供资金购买两个额外的液氮蒸气冷冻机的鸟类和哺乳动物标本，和一个更安全，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响进行评估，被认为值得支持审查标准。