Next-generation sequencing technologies have revolutionized genetic data
A new, automated process will revolutionize the way biologists acquire data from museum specimens.
May 10, 2021
In the past decade, next-generation sequencing technologies have revolutionized the way in which genetic data are generated and analyzed. In the field of phylogenetics, this has meant that researchers are rapidly reconstructing the genealogical tree of life, a goal biologists have been working toward since Darwin sketched the first phylogeny in 1837.
Despite the relative ease with which DNA can now be sequenced in large quantities, scientists must first extract that DNA from an organism, often relying on vast numbers of specimens in museums and herbaria, or collections of plant specimens. With more than 250,000 species in the plant kingdom alone, the acquisition and documentation of specimen material is the most time-consuming and error-prone process in large studies.