DNA from mollusc shell: a valuable and underutilised substrate for genetic analyses

PeerJ

article

Sara Ferreira¹  Rachael Ashby²  Gert-Jan Jeunen¹  Kim Rutherford¹  Catherine Collins¹  Erica V. Todd¹  Neil J. Gemmell¹ 

[1] Department of Anatomy, University of Otago;Invermay Agricultural Centre, AgResearch

关键词: Perna canaliculus;    Mollusc shell;    DNA analysis;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.9420

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Mollusc shells are an abundant resource that have been long used to predict the structures of ancient ecological communities, examine evolutionary processes, reconstruct paleoenvironmental conditions, track and predict responses to climatic change, and explore the movement of hominids across the globe. Despite the ubiquity of mollusc shell in many environments, it remains relatively unexplored as a substrate for molecular genetic analysis. Here we undertook a series of experiments using the New Zealand endemic greenshell mussel, Perna canaliculus, to explore the utility of fresh, aged, beach-cast and cooked mollusc shell for molecular genetic analyses. We find that reasonable quantities of DNA (0.002–21.48 ng/mg shell) can be derived from aged, beach-cast and cooked mussel shell and that this can routinely provide enough material to undertake PCR analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear gene fragments. Mitochondrial PCR amplification had an average success rate of 96.5% from shell tissue extracted thirteen months after the animal’s death. A success rate of 93.75% was obtained for cooked shells. Amplification of nuclear DNA (chitin synthase gene) was less successful (80% success from fresh shells, decreasing to 10% with time, and 75% from cooked shells). Our results demonstrate the promise of mollusc shell as a substrate for genetic analyses targeting both mitochondrial and nuclear genes.

【 授权许可】

CC BY