Taxonomic note: the potential of dead bacterial specimens for systematic studies.
Consideration should be given to preserving nonliving bacterial specimens as dried material in herbaria for use in future systematic studies. Nucleic acid sequences can be recovered from such material, and it may be possible to utilize it in other techniques. Dried specimens are cheap to prepare and preserve and would record much bacterial variation without the expense of maintaining living cultures. They would also be useful for uncultivable microorganisms. Some technical suggestions are offered.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Leicester University, United Kingdom.
P H
PH
Sneath
D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis
D004269:DNA, Bacterial