Next-Generation Sampling: pairing genomics with herbarium specimens provides species-level signal in Solidago (Asteraceae)

The ability to conduct species delimitation and phylogeny reconstruction with genomic datasets obtained exclusively from herbarium specimens would rapidly enhance our knowledge of large, taxonomically contentious plant genera. In this study the utility of Genotyping by Sequencing is assessed in the notoriously difficult genus Solidago by attempting to obtain an informative SNP dataset from a set of specimens collected between 1970 and 2010. Reduced representation libraries were prepared and Illumina-sequenced from 95 Solidago herbarium specimen DNAs, and resulting reads were processed with the non-reference UNEAK pipeline. Multidimensional clustering was used to assess the correspondence between genetic groups and morphologically defined species. Library construction and sequencing were successful in 93 of 95 samples. The UNEAK pipeline identified 8,470 SNPs, and a filtered dataset was analyzed for each of three Solidago subsections. Although results varied, clustering identified genomic groups that often corresponded to currently recognized species or groups of closely related species. These results suggest that GBS is broadly applicable to DNAs obtained from herbarium specimens. The data obtained and their biological signal suggest that pairing genomics with large-scale herbarium sampling is a promising strategy in species-rich plant groups.