Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
PROVIDER: PRJNA1133949 | ENA |
REPOSITORIES: ENA
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Project description:Natural history museum specimens of historical honeybees have been successfully used to explore the genomic past of the honeybee, indicating fast and rapid changes between historical and modern specimens, possibly as a response to current challenges. In our study we explore a potential untapped archive from natural history collections - specimens of beeswax. We examine an Apis mellifera mellifera queen cell specimen from the 19th century. The intact and closed cell was analysed by X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) to reveal a perfectly preserved queen bee inside her cell. Subsequently, a micro-destructive approach was used to evaluate the possibility of protein extraction from the cell. Our results show that studies on specimens such as these provide valuable information about the past rearing of queens, their diet and development, which is relevant for understanding current honeybee behaviour. In addition we evaluate the feasibility of using historical beeswax as a biomolecular archive for ancient proteins to study honeybees.
2024-09-05 | PXD034106 | Pride
Project description:Metagenomic analyses of Museum Collections
| PRJNA1103826 | ENA
Project description:Formalin induces inter- and intra-molecular crosslinks within exposed cells. This cross-linking can be exploited to characterise chromatin state as in the FAIRE (Formaldehyde-Assisted Isolation of Regulatory Elements) and MNase (micrococcal nuclease) assays. Here, we optimised the FAIRE and MNase assays for application upon heavily-fixed tissues as is typically found in historical formalin-preserved museum specimens. We demonstrate these assays in formalin-fixed mouse specimens and compare the chromatin signatures to specimen-matched fresh tissues. We found that heavy formalin fixation modulates rather than eliminates signatures of differential chromatin accessibility and that these chromatin profiles are reproducible, tissue-specific and sex-specific in vertebrate specimens.
2024-03-15 | GSE261169 | GEO
Project description:Formalin induces inter- and intra-molecular crosslinks within exposed cells. This cross-linking can be exploited to characterise chromatin state as in the FAIRE (Formaldehyde-Assisted Isolation of Regulatory Elements) and MNase (micrococcal nuclease) assays. Here, we optimised the FAIRE and MNase assays for application upon heavily-fixed tissues as is typically found in historical formalin-preserved museum specimens. We demonstrate these assays in formalin-fixed mouse specimens and compare the chromatin signatures to specimen-matched fresh tissues. We found that heavy formalin fixation modulates rather than eliminates signatures of differential chromatin accessibility and that these chromatin profiles are reproducible, tissue-specific and sex-specific in vertebrate specimens.
2024-03-01 | GSE256158 | GEO
Project description:<p>The living and dried specimens in botanical collections play an important role in society for scientific and recreational purposes, offering the opportunity to obtain both macroscopic and molecular information for individual plants, ecosystems, and environmental studies. Untargeted metabolomics is an analytical approach that permits the simultaneous study of multiple small molecules present in an organism, which allows us to statistically compare different conditions of interest. Metabolomic approaches have been used on living specimens in botanical collections, but, until now, not on historical dried material. Using the Nicotiana genus herbaceous plant (tobacco) as a case study, we propose an untargeted metabolomic study to evaluate the potential of dried historical specimens as a source of metabolomic information on the past. The metabolomic profile from polar and less-polar/apolar aqueous extracts of four modern handmade tobacco cigars (split into wrapper, binder, and filler leaves), and a set of eight late-19th to early-20th century tobacco specimens (seven tobacco leaves and one snuff powder) from the collection of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew (London, UK) were analysed by liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry. Results showed a wide range of polar and less-polar/apolar molecules which are preserved in dried botanical material, providing information optimal for metabolomic studies. The metabolomic profiles of historical dried samples were distinct enough to classify as Nicotiana tabacum or Nicotiana rustica, and showed differences based on geographic provenance or product transformation/processing. Statistical models based on the molecular data from the historical material permitted us to validate the labelling of the historical collection, which identified one possible mislabelled specimen and offered some clues as to the species of one unknown Nicotiana sample. Finally, metabolomic differences in profiles between Nicotiana tabacum and modern cigars showed that both share a large proportion of their metabolomic profile, where molecular differences could be possibly associated with both location of growth and anthropogenic transformation suffered by the plant in the last two centuries. This study demonstrates that dry botanical collections are a feasible source of information, and, if applied to a large set of individuals, conclusions may be drawn about the possible evolution and anthropogenic modification over time in plant material. The results are significant for disciplines interested in the history of plants, such as botany, history and archaeology.</p>
2024-03-06 | MTBLS4564 | MetaboLights