In a world obsessed with what is coming next, University researchers are looking at evidence from the past to answer the research questions of today.
Biological sciences doctoral student Vivien Chua is the lab’s inaugural researcher to use the new antique DNA lab in the University’s Museum of Natural Science, where she isolates and sequences DNA to further her dissertation research.
The antique DNA lab, financed by a grant from the National Science Foundation, will allow scientists to study DNA samples from old specimens in the museum and contribute to evolution and ecology research.
“There are lots of species of mammals that have never been included in biogenetic estimates, and the same is true for birds, and any other group of animals and plants,” assistant professor Jake Esselstyn said. “Many of the species that are not included yet, it’s because we don’t have tissue samples where DNA was intentionally preserved. We do have old skins of specimens that have DNA preserved accidentally. Now we have the technology, and the clean lab, to be able to isolate the DNA in these samples.”
Over time, DNA samples in archived museum specimens deteriorate and break into small fragments due to exposure to the elements.
In the past, small DNA fragments were of no use to scientists, but new advances in DNA sequencing technology can use DNA which resides in museum skins and skeletons as a viable resource for scientific research.
To analyze the antique DNA, which can be more than 100 years old, the sample must be in a clean space where it can’t get in contact with modern DNA, which can contaminate the sample.
“We need to keep it fairly clean. We spray and clean the counters and the walls with bleach every once in a while,” Esselstyn said. “We don’t want anyone going into the genetics lab in the basement and then coming into this lab because they will get DNA on their skins, their hair. Even walking into the lab after being exposed to outside DNA could lead to contamination.”
Chua said this lab is necessary because if the sample isn’t isolated there’s no way to know if the DNA has been contaminated, which would could hinder research findings.
This is one of two antique DNA labs on campus, Esselstyn said. The other is located in the Renewable Natural Resources Building.
Esselstyn said having this new lab makes research done by students working in the museum much more efficient.
Chua, whose research focuses on the evolutionary history of birds in Borneo, an island in Southeast Asia, will examine bird toe pads in the lab coming from specimen she’s collected, as well as from other facilities in the U.S.
Esselstyn, who is still in the process of selecting samples, will use samples from a different species of mammals’ bellies.
Esselstyn said research done in the lab will mostly be used to answer systematics questions — how species are defined and the relationships between them.
However, Esselstyn said this type of basic research could lead to answering questions about diseases among mammals, like viruses transmitted from rodents to humans.
“When you have active research going on by the University, it leads to the faculty, graduate and undergraduate students to learn the latest scientific knowledge rather than just what’s been printed in a textbook published 10 or 15 years ago,” Esselstyn said.
Esselstyn said the lab is available for students working in the museum. Two undergraduates currently work with him.
LSU biological sciences Ph.D student Vivien Chua opens a cabinet where they keep a collection of bird specimens Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015 inside the Museum of Natural Science.
