WTOP’s Matt Kaufax takes an even deeper dive into the Smithsonian Natural History Museum’s “Ocean Library” to explore how DNA collected from millions of specimens is helping us understand oceans and Earth.
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Mapping the genetic code of ocean life at the Smithsonian
Did you know one of the largest collections of marine DNA in the entire world is hiding just outside D.C.?
In today’s episode of “Matt About Town,” we’re taking an even deeper dive into the Smithsonian Natural History Museum’s “Ocean Library,” to explore how DNA collected from millions of specimens is helping us understand our oceans — and our planet.
Last week, “Matt About Town” gave you an exclusive look at the Smithsonian’s “Ocean Library,” a staggeringly vast collection stored at the Museum Support Center in Suitland, Maryland. MSC is where the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History stores its reserve collections not in display to the public. Scientists from all over come to MSC to study them.
What we didn’t show you before were the rooms filled with liquid nitrogen drums, metal containers and a freezer, along with the state-of-the-art DNA labs, where scientists are extracting and cataloging samples from all these specimens.
It’s all part of NMNH’s Ocean DNA Program, which was launched in 2019. The eventual goal is to have every marine species known to humankind accounted for at MSC, with each individual specimen getting its own digital DNA bar code of sorts, stored in a database for all time.
This way, any scientist anywhere in the world can study a species at any given time.
Scientists use the DNA gathered from the millions of specimens here as a reference point, comparing it to traces of environmental DNA, or eDNA, that floats around in water all across the planet. It’s how they sift through the genetic soup of skin, blood, hair cells and more in our oceans to paint a comprehensive picture of life in the sea.
The Smithsonian’s state of the art preservation methods — and the incredible wealth of information scientists can gather using new technologies — is what makes this program unlike any other on Earth.
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