Buccal swabs for amphibian genomics

Abstract

Conservation genetics must find the balance between the technical challenges of DNA sampling while promoting animal welfare. In amphibians, buccal swabs offer a least intrusive source of DNA, but most herpetologists still refrain to use them, partly due to doubts regarding their effectiveness to provide enough material now that next-generation sequencing (NGS) analyses have become routine. In this article, we hope to change their minds through an empirical demonstration that buccal swabs offer DNA amounts and success rates for a widely used NGS approach (RAD-sequencing) that are equivalent to those of more intrusive yet commonly used samples in frogs and toads. We thus call for a shift of DNA sampling practices, and stress the fact that beyond their proven reliability, buccal swabs facilitate the issue of collection permits by increasingly restrictive ethical committees, especially when it comes to endangered species. With this purpose in mind, we share our long-term experience with amphibian buccal swabs through visual and textual pointers.