Navigating uncertainty in museum workflows: genomic data mining and curation of the Diptera collections hosted at RMCA.

ABSTRACT: As part of its extensive Diptera holdings, the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) houses over 100,000 specimens of Tephritidae and Syrphidae, which represent a critical resource for taxonomic and systematic research. Here, we present a feasibility study evaluating streamlined workflows for genomic data mining and archiving in museum collections. We analysed DNA yield, quality and sequencing performance from more than 1,400 insect vouchers and found few predictable trends, reflecting the nature of heterogeneous and skewed groups of samples collected under largely unknown field conditions. Regardless, our results show that Illumina short read whole genome sequencing can work well even with degraded insect material. In this context, routine short-read sequencing offers a practical first s

SUBMITTER: Esselens L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12365672 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature