[5][6] Museum collections contain unique resources such as natural history specimens, which can be used for genome-scale examinations of species, their evolution, and their responses to environmental change.
[2][10] Genomic analyses face considerable challenges as a result of the highly degraded DNA typical of museum specimens.
DNA from such samples is often subject to post-mortem nucleotide damage such as the hydrolytic deamination of cytosine (C) to uracil (U) residues.
Robust genomic and statistical techniques are needed to rigorously detect and avoid errors and genotyping uncertainties when carrying out analyses based on museum collections.
[11] This can be contentious for curators and collection staff,[1] involving a variety of ethical issues around the handling and destruction of objects, colonial acquisition and repatriation practices, and present-day social and political implications of research.