Hesperia butterflies Genome sequencing and assembly

Centuries of zoological studies have amassed billions of specimens in collections worldwide. Genomics of these specimens promises to rejuvenate biodiversity research. However, because DNA degrades with age in historical specimens, it is a challenge to obtain genomic data for them and analyze degraded genomes. We developed experimental and computational protocols to overcome these challenges and we applied our methods to resolve a series of long-standing controversies involving a group of butterflies. We deduced geographical origins of several historical specimens of uncertain provenance that are at the heart of these debates. Here, genomics tackles one of the greatest problems in zoology: countless old, poorly documented specimens that serve as irreplaceable embodiments of species concepts. The ability to figure out where they were collected will resolve many on-going disputes. More broadly, we show the utility of applying genomics to historical museum specimens to delineate the boundaries of species and populations, and to hypothesize about genotypic determinants of phenotypic traits.