A comprehensive collection of DNA and tissue predominantly from Scandinavian fauna and flora, but also with substantial contributions from other parts of the world

The museum’s genetic resource collections began more than 40 years ago as curator-driven research material. Over time, we realized that dispersed collections are vulnerable to equipment failures and sample mismanagement or loss. Therefore, we began an organized effort to centralize these collections, first within some research departments, and then throughout the museum. In 2010 NMNH constructed a biorepository, which began receiving collections in 2011. The current capacity is approximately 4.2 million 2 ml cryovials that are housed in 76 ultra-cold mechanical and liquid nitrogen freezers and a small number of refrigerators. All cold storage units are monitored constantly for performance. NMNH uses a modified version of FreezerPro (Ruro.com) to maintain and track inventory. FreezerPro is connected via an Application Programming Interface (API) to KE EMu, the museum’s catalog system. EMu provides a limited form of the catalog information to allow easier identification of samples. Each vial is assigned a locally unique Biorepository Number by FreezerPro to facilitate a unified system for locating and identifying samples. The collection includes insects, birds, terrestrial plants, marine and terrestrial invertebrates, algae, fish, reptiles, mammals, amphibians, bacteria and protozoans. Current strengths are in bird, marine and terrestrial mammal, and insect holdings, although significant projects have been initiated that will broaden and deepen the taxonomical representation as well as environments. Human tissues, commercial, and agricultural products are not a part of the collection. A complete inventory of all holdings is underway. The entire collection presently numbers more than 250,000 and could be twice that number. All these materials are available for use in genomic research, toxicology studies and environmental monitoring.

The University of Kansas Ichthyology frozen tissue collection continues to expand rapidly and has broad representation of both marine and freshwater fish diversity - 11,000 individual tissue samples from 2384 taxa (297 families and 1077 genera) and 38 countries (Australia, Belize, Ethiopia, Fiji, Nepal, Seychelles, South Africa and Tonga etc., as well as oceanic localities). The collections and the scope of research activities in the division continue to grow due to the ongoing activities of ichthyology staff and students. The collection is used by national and international researchers as well as by state and federal agencies. The Division of Ichthyology is designated as a Regional Center in the Midwest and Great Plains Regions (Collette & Lachner 1976, Copeia 1976: 625-642; Poss and Collette 1995, Copeia 1995: 48-70) and is among the top twenty ichthyological collections in the country. Almost 60% of the specimens in the collection are from the Great Plains Region. The collection is an important resource for anyone interested in the region’s fishes. The data concerning these faunas are not extensively duplicated by other ichthyological collections. The tissue collection comprises tissue samples originally collected in liquid nitrogen, DMSO and ethanol and stored in state-of-the-art liquid nitrogen dewars at -170°C. The tissues are made up mostly of muscle tissue but also includes, liver and other internal organs, fin clips and whole specimens. A large proportion of our collection has vouchers held either at KU or at other collections. The provenance of these vouchers is indicated in the database

As an aid for research in molecular phylogenetics the Herbarium maintains a collection of material specifically intended for DNA extraction. Botanists at the Missouri Botanical Garden collect leaf samples, preserve them in silica gel and store them at -20º C. Because the samples are carefully prepared and stored, they are likely to give better yields of higher quality DNA than herbarium material. To date, nearly 11,000 samples have been catalogued and are available for distribution.

The main criterion for inclusion of samples in the JBRJ DNA Bank is that they come from Brazilian native flora.